J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, this relatively detailed sketch of a cottage interior fills much of the page. The open door, through which can be seen a gabled building, illuminates a modest room crammed with furniture. Turner has labelled some of these items, including a sideboard, a cradle, and a bed. This part of the sketchbook is dominated by sketches of Sark Island, which lacked ‘regular lodging-houses or inns’, but could provide ‘good reception under the humble roof of a Serk [sic] cottage’.1

With the page tuned vertically, Turner also included a view of distant islands with shipping under a low sun on the right-hand edge of this page.