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

The four sketches on this page are some of a handful sketches (often three or four to a page) scattered throughout this sketchbook that show a view of a large town from across a river or estuary (see folio 3 verso; D25648). These have been likened in style, and in the appearance of several buildings, to a double-page sketch of Liverpool in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border sketchbook (Tate D25773–D25774; Turner Bequest CCLXVI 6a–7). Although no particular buildings have been identified in the sketches on the present page, the general appearance of the town with its church spires, windmills and docks, is very similar to the other Liverpool sketches.

The towered building at the left of the bottom sketch does bear a resemblance to the Signal Tower at Leith, perhaps depicted on folio 21 (D25678), though, on balance, Liverpool remains to the present author a more convincing possibility.