Joseph Mallord William Turner

As Finberg recognised,1 this is a view looking north-west down the River Thames from the garden of ‘The Limes’, Mortlake, from a position a little north of the viewpoint adopted in the painting of the house, The Seat of William Moffatt Esq., at Mortlake. Early (Summer’s) Morning, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1826 (Frick Collection, New York).2 The main source for that composition is folio 11 recto (D18725), which depicts the west side of the house and its portico as an elevation rather than at the oblique angle shown here, and the trees receding gradually with spaces between, rather than their trunks overlapping one another as here; the present sketch extends about a third of the way across folio 14 recto opposite (D18730).

For more on the house, the painting and related studies, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.