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

Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, there are three bands of studies showing different aspects of Castel Trostburg and its outlying defences, high on the east side of the Isarco (Eisack) Valley above Ponte Gardena (Waidbruck), north-east of Bolzano (Bozen); see under the full-page view on folio 54 verso (D31704) for further discussion. There are other views on folio 60 recto opposite and likely also its verso (D31714–D31715).

As listed in its overall technical notes, this is one of four leaves in this sketchbook with a blank recto and a drawing on the verso not distinguished as such by the customary ‘a’ suffix to its number in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory.1 When Tate accession numbers were assigned, the recto was initially designated D31712, with this side as D31713; the latter was subsequently cancelled, and the first number now applies to the present page. The otherwise blank recto is inscribed by C.F. Bell in black ink ‘59’ and stamped in black ‘CCCXII – 59’ at the bottom right in sequence with adjacent leaves.