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

This is among dozens of blue paper studies presumably made in connection with the Cowes Regatta events in the late summer of 1827; see the Introduction to this subsection for other views of Cowes Castle. Here the viewpoint is the shore at the mouth of the River Medina north of the castle, with its castellated barbican (the only feature still recognisable after much subsequent redevelopment), seen on the right 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).1 There are similar views in the sketchbooks used at this time, particularly one in the Windsor and Cowes, Isle of Wight book (Tate D20707; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 69).

As noted there, the present work and thirty-four other sheets were recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory as unmounted, and ‘formed part of [a] parcel’ labelled by John Ruskin ‘O. 232. Chalk scrawls on grey. Rubbish.’2

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in red ink ‘460’ bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘CCXXVIII 39’ bottom right. Despite Finberg’s statement that this sheet was unmounted, the remnants of white mounting paper or tape are evident at the corners.