Melincourt, near Abergarwed, on a small river running into the River Neath above Aberdulais, probably marked the highest point of Turner’s detour from the coastal road up the Vale of Neath. It had been mentioned in the itinerary written out for him at the front of this book (
D40554). This study, with its partial completion in watercolour, is notable as a virtuoso exercise in the rendering of moving water at a period when the artist was working towards his first exhibited oil painting,
Fishermen at Sea (Tate
T01585),
1 which appeared in public the following spring, and displayed considerable mastery in this department. Other watercolours in this book, including those on folios 9 recto, 12 recto (
D00561,
D00564) and 21 recto (
D00573; Turner Bequest XXVI 20), together with the finished view
On the Coast near Tenby (private collection),
2 testify to his broad concern with the problem during the Welsh tour. He was to make further studies of water on the coast of the Isle of Wight soon afterwards (see the
Isle of Wight sketchbook, Tate; Turner Bequest XXIV).
