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

Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation is a rough study of figures in a small boat or boats, presumably observed on the River Thames around Richmond or Old London Bridge, the subjects of identified sketches elsewhere in this sketchbook; see the Introduction.

With the page turned vertically, towards the outer edge is a more delicate sketch of the back view of two men and a woman and a small laden cart; Turner identifies them as ‘Travelling Gypsies’ and makes some typical colour notes beside the woman. To the upper right of this study, separated by pencil lines, is a tiny sketch of a wooded landscape – perhaps, like other larger studies in this book, a Thames Valley scene or an idealised image of one; see the Introduction.