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

The page is taken up with a rough diagram, the significance of which is unclear, though it could indicates the physical arrangement of varnishes and other ingredients in a studio or workshop. Each word is shown within a rough geometrical shape. The following run from left to right towards the top: ‘Corn’; ‘Mastick | Pure’; ‘Copal | mix’; ‘Copal | cold’; ‘Corn | V[...]’; ‘Copal | W’; ‘Animi’. Below ‘Copal cold’ in a box of its own is ‘Mastick | Pure’. Separate from this main group, ‘copal resin’ and ‘animi’ are noted at the bottom right corner, ascending between diagonal lines.1

This is the first of fourteen pages of notes on varnishes and colours resulting from chemical reactions, working back through the sketchbook to folio 55 recto (D09959). As discussed in the sketchbook’s Introduction, most are taken from William Nicholson’s 1808 Dictionary of Practical and Theoretical Chemistry, including recipes for varnishes noted on the recto of the present leaf, folios 61 verso and recto, and 60 verso (D09973–D09970), although Nicholson does not appear to be the source of the present diagram.2

Technical notes:

A small, circled spot of foxing at the bottom centre shows through to the recto (D09973).