J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

In the upper half of this page is a rough outline of coastline in the Cinque Terre area north of La Spezia. It is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. As noted by the geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot, the artist’s south-facing viewpoint looks out towards the northern tip of ‘Corsica’, as identified by the upper inscription.1 In the foreground is a building and a cove beneath, presumably viewed from a high coastal road. Turner’s inscription towards the centre might read ‘amph’, perhaps an abbreviated reference to ‘amphitheatre’, a means of conveying the curvature of the cove.

Beneath is a partial study of two figures with hats, executed with the sketchbook turned the other way up.