Joseph Mallord William Turner

The subject is drawn with the page turned horizontally. Turner took some interest in the tombstones that frequently pave the floors of churches and cathedrals in England. In 1796, he had shown at the Royal Academy a watercolour of the interior of Westminster Abbey, St Erasmus in Bishop Islip’s Chapel (British Museum, London)1 in which he inscribes his own name and date of birth on a slab in the foreground.

As David Hill observes, with this study Turner reached the end of his book as it would originally have been bound; it is the last drawing of the tour. Finberg noted immediately after his entry for this page: ‘A number of leaves at end of book have been torn or cut out’;2 those following have been bound in out of sequence, with their correct positions indicated in their respective entries; see the Concordance in the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Verso:

Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.