Following early commentators on the
Liber, Finberg associated most of the related drawings in this sketchbook, beginning with folio 4 (
D05495), with a ‘Temple of Isis’ in Petworth Park, but the Ionic rotunda at Petworth is situated on a hill some way from the lake. Neither the Weybridge nor the Petworth locations are accepted today and this sketchbook indicates a position by the Thames. Some of the drawings incorporate views south-west from Kew, with the Dutch House (now Kew Palace), and the site must have been very close to Turner’s home at Sion (or Syon) Ferry House. Evidently the same rotunda appears in
Isleworth, another
Liber plate (for the drawing see Tate
D08163; Vaughan Bequest CXVIII I). Edward Croft-Murray, in marginal comments in a copy of Finberg in the Tate Library, suggested ‘?Sion boathouse’ and Wilton identifies it as the Alcove, which he describes as the Duke of Northumberland’s waterside shooting lodge. It is likely to be inspired by the Pavilion built for the Duke by Robert Mylne and completed in 1803, its identity obscured in some of Turner’s sketches by his omission of its flanking wings to give it more of the appearance of a classical temple. The wings are shown in the sketch on folio 27 (
D05528), viewed from the river at the Isleworth corner of Syon Park. Probably it appears again, with Isleworth church behind it, on folio 53 (
D05574). For further discussion see notes to the drawing for
Isis (Tate
D08168; Vaughan Bequest CXVIII N).
