Joseph Mallord William Turner

This is the verso of Tate D08235 (Turner Bequest CXX U), which shows the garden elevation of Turner’s self-designed house, Sandycombe Lodge, Twickenham, as well as a sketch map of its situation.

The slight sketches here are not mentioned in Finberg’s Turner Bequest Inventory.1 The upper sketch shows a narrow oblong with what may be the gable end of a building attached at the right, perhaps as a combined ground-plan and elevation. The separate sketch towards the bottom shows an inverted U-shaped curve, perhaps relating to the dip in the ground below the centre of the house on the recto, together with a cluster of short, straight lines, although the intention of any of these marks and any potential connection to the design process for Sandycombe Lodge is unclear.

Technical notes:

The sheet is trimmed straight at the left and at the bottom. The top edge is straight but torn rather than trimmed, and the left-hand edge is slightly irregular, such that the sheet is narrower by a few millimetres at the top. There are slight indications of a straight edge having been used to guide the tear.