Joseph Mallord William Turner

The drawing was made with the page turned vertically. Like the equally swift study on folio 68 verso opposite (D20700; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 65a), a disparate group of figures, including women, and soldiers distinguished by X-shaped webbing, is shown on a slope with trees and buildings lightly indicated. They are likely to be spectators on the shore at Cowes Regatta; compare the setting and variety of figures in Turner’s 1827 oil Sketch for ‘East Cowes Castle, the Regatta Starting for Their Moorings’ No.3 (Tate N01997)1 and the subsequent painting East Cowes Castle, the Seat of J. Nash, Esq.; the Regatta Starting for their Moorings, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1828 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).2 For other spectators, see under folio 13 recto (D20615; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 12).

For more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the Introduction.