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

Something of a pair with the facing page on folio 76 recto (D17481), this sheet displays a sketch of a vessel firing its guns towards the centre of the page, composed with the sketchbook inverted relative to its foliation. The hull of the warship is largely obscured by round puffs of smoke, evoked used bouncing lines which form billowing clouds that ascend skyward at right.

At left a drawing of a lighter craft surrounded by the distant masts of other vessels is described. At right, some anonymous topography gently slopes down towards the edge of the page.

In the bottom right corner, a small inscribed sketch appears to show a section of a harbour. A vertical row of dashed lines at right might denote a flight of steps, with the hatched shape in the background suggesting architectural forms. The more loosely handled drawing to the left of this remains ambiguous, its shapes reminiscent of undulating timber shipping but evading concrete identification as such. Finally, at bottom left, a brief outline of the hull of a light craft seems to have been composed with the page upright in relation to its foliation.