Joseph Mallord William Turner

Some time in 1857 Ruskin removed this leaf from the sketchbook to exhibit the drawing at Marlborough House and then at the National Gallery, together with folio 17, showing a similar subject (D04814). As ‘Studies of Swiss Costume’ they were wrongly placed in the display devoted to works of Turner’s ‘Third Period, from about 1823’. While the present leaf was later rebound in its correct position, folio 17 was reversed with its original recto facing it. When exhibited or reproduced together since, the two drawings, similar in character and finish and with similar but not contiguous ruled lines in pencil, have appeared as if they were a single subject on a double-spread, though originally they were not. This study shows four figures, three of whom are men; two wear cockaded hats and one has a rifle slung over his shoulder.