Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Splashes or Offsets of Colour 1840
Watercolour on white wove paper, 220 x 320 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1834’
Inscribed by ?Turner in pencil ‘R’ top left
Inscribed in pencil by Ralph Nicholson Wornum ‘two out 1868 | RN.W=’ above centre, upside down
Inscribed in red ink ‘2’ circled towards top right, ascending vertically (now blurred)
Inscribed in pencil ‘Cover of Roll sketch Book of Venice | CCCXV (Sched.13).’ towards top left
Stamped in black ‘CCCXV’ top left
The sight splashes or offsets on this otherwise blank inside cover reflect Turner’s extensive use of watercolour when this sketchbook was intact (see the Introduction).
The dated and initialled inscription ‘two out 1868 | RN.W=’ is by Ralph Nicholson Wornum,
1 then Keeper of the National Gallery, and typical of his minimal notes relating to pages extracted from numerous Turner Bequest sketchbooks. As Tate D32120–D32129 (Turner Bequest CCCXV 4–13) had already been exhibited separately, this reference is presumably to D32134 and D32178 (CCCXV 18, CCCXVI 41), selected by Wornum in November 1868 for the three touring Loan Collections from the Bequest which commenced in the following year.
2As well as the ‘2’ noted above there are possibly traces of other characters or words in red ink, presumably inscribed by a later hand, which may have been washed away in the 1928 Tate Gallery flood.