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

With the page turned horizontally, shipping scenes are arranged in two main bands, with others to the left and in a separate sequence of smaller sketches at the bottom right. They were presumably made within a relatively short time, and there are indications of coastlines with buildings, towers and trees in the backgrounds. Heavy cloud and rain are shown at the top left. Compare the studies on folio 24 verso and the recto (D18887–D18888).

As set out in the sketchbook and tour Introductions, the relationship between the coastal Kent subjects on earlier pages (and at the other end) and Turner’s routes to and from the Continent for the tour which occupies most of this book is unclear, making the locations shown here difficult to establish, although some at least could still English at this point, given the hills at the bottom left. The first subject likely to show the Dutch Nieuwe Maas (New Meuse) river, up which Turner sailed to Rotterdam, is on folio 26 recto opposite (D18890). See the Introduction for discussion of the book’s many shipping studies.