Joseph Mallord William Turner

Finberg’s identification is correct, as Padstow, with the tower of St Petroc’s Church, is seen in the distance to the south-west beside the Camel Estuary. The viewpoint is the St Columb Major–Wadebridge road west of Whitecross. There is another view of Padstow from a few miles south-west on the same road on folio 30 recto (D41306; CXXV a 30), and views of Wadebridge on folios 4 recto and 5 recto (D41279, D41280).

As discussed in the introduction, the pages of this ‘sketchbook’ appear to have originally been loose sheets, and are not recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest, although he subsequently noted the subject correctly as ‘Near Padstow’ in a manuscript listing,1 while C.F. Bell described it in his own notes as ‘Expanse of moorland seen from a height’.2 Figures usually corresponding to Finberg’s MS catalogue page numbers, which differ from Bell’s sequence, are inscribed on the verso of most sheets.

Technical notes:

The sheet is slightly wrinkled, possibly as a result of exposure to damp.

Verso:

Blank, save for inscription by Edwin Fagg in pencil ‘146 | 46’ bottom right. There are glue stains at the corners of the sheet.