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

This sketch appears to show High Rock to the south-west from the above the northern apex of Horseshoe Bend; the road leading through Cheddar Gorge is indicated below. There is a view from the road itself on folio 2 recto (D41375) and what seem to be further sketches from the north on folios 6 recto and 7 recto (D41379, D41380). Folios 1 recto–8 recto (D41374–D41381) are all views of Cheddar Gorge, most apparently made in a concentrated area around the Horseshoe Bend.

As discussed in the introduction, the pages of this ‘sketchbook’, which appear to have originally been loose sheets, are not recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest, although he subsequently noted the subject as ‘Rocks’ in a manuscript list,1 while C.F. Bell described it in his own notes as ‘Rocky gorge’.2 Figures corresponding to Finberg’s MS catalogue page numbers, which differ from Bell’s sequence, are inscribed on the verso of each sheet, although in the present case there is an anomaly, as the number has been trimmed and now appears to read ‘10’ rather than Finberg’s ‘8’.

Technical notes:

The sheet is wrinkled, possibly as a result of exposure to damp. There are glue stains at the corners, showing through from the verso.

Verso:

Blank, save for inscription by Edwin Fagg in pencil ‘211 | [?10]’ bottom left, descending vertically (partly trimmed). There are glue stains at the corners of the sheet.