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

Finberg identified this as a study for Apollo and Python exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1811 but perhaps painted earlier (Tate N00488).1 Butlin and Joll note its difference from the picture and Hill finds little to uphold the connection. Instead, this might be an early idea for part of the landscape setting of The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides exhibited at the British Institution in 1806 (Tate N00477),2 for which there are studies near the beginning of the sketchbook (see especially folio 1 verso, D05767) and probably also variant ideas on folios 29 verso, 30, 31, 31 verso, 32 verso, 33 verso and 34 verso (D05815, D05816, D05818, D05819, D05821, D05823, D05825). The right foreground of this sketch, with the motif of a fallen tree, is explored again on 29 verso and, with the addition of black chalk, on folio 3 (D05770).