Joseph Mallord William Turner

There are several separate studies here, with three scenes in bands down the left-hand side, a larger view at the centre right, and studies of two boats and an annotated flag at the top right. In two views, what is probably the tip of the East Cowes headland appears on the right, seen to the east from the mouth of the River Medina. Some or all of the yachts may be racing; for more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the Introduction.

Technical notes:

There are dark marks from glue at the corners from when the leaf was extracted in the nineteenth century in order to exhibit the recto (D20731; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 81). Finberg’s manuscript note in his 1909 Inventory recorded a ‘Leaf cut out’1 at the point in the sketchbook where this one, listed last in the published sequence, has subsequently been reattached.