Joseph Mallord William Turner

This drawing is similar to another from the same sketchbook, inscribed ‘Banks of Arun’ on its verso (D07514; Turner Bequest CIX 3). The Arun runs east of Petworth and very close to Fittleworth where Turner also used a sketchbook in 1809,1 to join the English Channel at Littlehampton. The figures must be anglers, judging by Turner’s note on the verso. See also a slight sketch of sportsmen, from the same sketchbook (D07512; Turner Bequest CIX 1). Turner may already have been taking part in the various activities laid on for guests at Petworth.

Verso:

Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Drawing our first pond’. Finberg gives an alternative reading of the last word as ‘bird’, which might suggest that the recto depicts duck-shooting, but the subject appears to be fishing.