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

The drawings are inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. They are in three bands, with various shipping. At the top the location is uncertain, but may be the shore at Cowes, looking north out of the River Medina with a three-masted ship in the distance; in the middle a man and apparently a woman with a parasol are shown in a small rowing boat with various craft moored or under way beyond. At the bottom left is a slight sketch of yachts under sail.

At the centre left is a continuation of the wooded shore near Cowes Castle, extending across the full width of folio 72 recto opposite (D20707; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 69), under which the subject is discussed. For more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the Introduction.