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

Turner filled this page with small sketches of the landscape along the east coast of Guernsey. At the top is a depiction of the hills around St Peter Port with the medieval fortress of Castle Cornet sitting on its island to the right-hand side of the page. For the key entry on this landmark, see folio 29 verso (D23575; Turner Bequest CCLII 29a). As identified by Turner’s inscription, two sketches of the distant terrain around St Sampson Harbour are included in the centre of the page, with the lower of the two inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated. The recurrence of St Sampson Harbour in the volume is listed under the entry for folio 51 verso (D23616; Turner Bequest CCLII 51a). High headlands are sketched at the bottom of the page; the tall structure towards the left-hand side might identify this as the terrain around the Doyle Monument to the south of St Peter Port. This structure was a large column, raised to commemorate Sir John Doyle who had served as the island’s Lieutenant Governor during the Napoleonic Wars.1