Joseph Mallord William Turner

This colour sketch of the trees was first documented by John Ruskin as one of several of works depicting Dieppe and its environs. As A.J. Finberg noted in his 1909 inventory of the Turner Bequest, Ruskin grouped this work together with twenty other ‘slight coloured sketches, chiefly from Dieppe’. ¹ A note which was once appended to this parcel of works reveals that Ruskin held them in low regard, judging that they had been executed ‘in some careless or sickly state of mind’. ² Turner specialist Ian Warrell has upheld the likely connection of this sheet to stylistically comparable views of the landscape around Dieppe. He has also suggested that it may have been produced with the failed The English Channel or La Manche print series in mind.3

Verso:

See entry for Tate D20217 (Turner Bequest CCXX Jb).