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

This pastedown is inscribed by Turner in pencil at the top left:

Turner’s patrons at Harewood were Edward Lascelles senior (1740–1820) and, more particularly, his eldest son, also Edward (1764–1814). The father had been created Lord Harewood in 1796, having inherited Harewood House and its large Yorkshire estates between Leeds and Harrogate the previous year. Edward Junior, who became Viscount Lascelles when his father was created Earl of Harewood in 1812, was taught watercolour painting by Turner and proved a capable pupil. He also collected contemporary painting, especially watercolours, and acquired Turner’s St Erasmus in Bishop Islip’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey (British Museum, London)1 in 1797. As this list of commissions shows, he quickly followed up the purchase with commissions for several views on the Harewood estate; see Tate D02379, D02385–D02392, D17202 (Turner Bequest LI L, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, CXCVII L), for further drawings made at Harewood.

At the top right, the sketchbook’s original schedule number is endorsed by the executors of the Turner Bequest, George Jones, Charles Lock Eastlake and John Prescott Knight, ‘N^o 178. | George Jones’, initialled in pencil ‘C.L.E.’ and ‘JPK’ below. See also the descriptive note by John Ruskin pasted onto the recto of the unaccessioned flyleaf opposite, transcribed in the sketchbook’s Introduction.