Joseph Mallord William Turner

There are three sketches here, all made with the page turned vertically. The rapid study of a woman turning towards the viewer with bare neck and shoulders, possibly wearing a bonnet or hat, occupies the central register, and was probably made before the landscape studies which appear to have been fitted in above and below. For other figure studies in this sketchbook, see under folio 1 verso (D22324).

The top sketch of trees, possibly with a low structure to the right, is effectively unidentifiable, but it may be in the vicinity of the Eleanor Cross at Hardingstone, near Northampton, shown flanked by trees in the slightly more substantial drawing at the bottom, which appears to be inscribed with an ‘H’ followed by a couple of letters, possibly an abbreviation of the place name. There are other sketches around the cross on folios 23 verso and 24 recto and verso (D22364–D22366).