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

This is the left part of a double-page spread continued to the right on folio 36 recto (D11556; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 20, now bound opposite), recording the view from the left bank of the River Wharfe, just downstream of Conistone Bridge with Kilnsey village and Crag over the bridge to the left, and Conistone village to the right with a detail of Conistone Chapel above right. Turner drew Kilnsey from nearer viewpoint on folio 34 verso (D11553; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 18a), and the present subject was rehearsed in a quick sketch in the Yorkshire 2 sketchbook (Tate D11305; Turner Bequest CXLV 153). The present writer dates Turner’s sketches at Kilnsey to Friday 28 July 1816.

In the present binding of the sketchbook the sketches of Kilnsey interrupt views of Mossdale Falls in Wensleydale, which Turner visited some days after Kilnsey. A fairly comprehensive reordering of this part of the book appears to be required. For further comment see notes to folio 33 verso (D11576; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 31a).