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

The drawing is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, and continues a little way onto folio 71 verso opposite (D20706; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 68a). The view is south-east up the River Medina from the shore below Cowes Castle on the right; compare the right-hand side of the painting East Cowes Castle, the Seat of J. Nash, Esq.; the Regatta Starting for their Moorings, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1828 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London), where the part of the barbican is shown against trees at the very edge of the composition; see also the view of the castle on the verso (D20708; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 69a).

Beyond is a yacht under sail and moored vessels with bunting. The loosely indicated figures by the rowing boats in the foreground possibly include women with parasols. For more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the Introduction.