Joseph Mallord William Turner

With the sketchbook turned vertically, Turner filled the top half of this page with views of craggy coastal scenery. The small sketch in the top left-hand corner records a small view of Petit Bot Bay on the south coast of Guernsey. Art historian Ian Warrell proposes that Turner’s note ‘Tippo’ in the midst of the cliffs is a phonetic spelling of Petit Bot in the local pronunciation.1 The bay recurs in this volume on folio 80 verso (D23674; Turner Bequest CCLII 80a).

The note reading ‘Doyle’ towards the top left-hand corner of the page may refer to the vertical structure immediately above, identifying it as the column of the Doyle Monument. This structure had been raised to the south-east of the island to commemorate Sir John Doyle who served as the island’s Lieutenant Governor during the Napoleonic Wars.2 Alternatively this inscription may relate to the stout complex of structures immediately beneath, locating them to Fort Doyle on the island’s north-east shore.3