Joseph Mallord William Turner

The drawing is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, and shows yachts under way towards the Solent, with East Cowes Castle (see under folio 1 verso; D20597) on the horizon across the River Medina, south-eastwards from the vicinity of Cowes Castle at the river’s mouth (see under folio 72 verso; D20708; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 69a); the view is continued, rather loosely, half way across folio 70 verso opposite (D20704; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 67a), where the main building seems to be Cowes Castle.

This perhaps represents an intermediate idea between the respective dynamic sea and more sedate harbour views in the two paintings East Cowes Castle, the Seat of J. Nash, Esq.; the Regatta Beating to Windward (Indianapolis Museum of Art)1 and East Cowes Castle, the Seat of J. Nash, Esq.; the Regatta Starting for their Moorings, both exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1828 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).2

For more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the Introduction.