Joseph Mallord William Turner

All but one of the watercolours on this wall were originally part of a sketchbook containing twenty-two views of Venice (the exception is no.70). The book was broken up by Ruskin in 1857 when he made the selection displayed here. Their sequence in Ruskin's catalogue has suggested the probable order in which they were found. However, because Ruskin was not always systemmatic in the way he dismantled Turner's sketchbooks, it is now often very difficult to determine which loose leaves relate to which sketchbook, and in what order they should be placed within a book.

Gallery label, August 2004

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