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

This is a view down the River Thames, looking north-east from the bank in the vicinity of ‘The Limes’, Mortlake. This stretch of the waterfront has a similar low-rise character today, although it is difficult to match individual buildings here to survivors among later additions. The nearer part of the view is inverted relative to the more careful sketch of the distance, which was presumably made first.

There is a similar view on folio 13 recto (D18728), which was carefully transcribed in the painting of ‘The Limes’, The Seat of William Moffatt Esq., at Mortlake. Early (Summer’s) Morning, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1826 (Frick Collection, New York).1 Like that on the recto (D18773), the present drawing was perhaps made during a return visit to the garden of ‘The Limes’ in the autumn or winter of 1825–6. The main source for the painting’s overall composition is folio 11 recto (D18725); for more on the house, the painting and related studies, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.