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

Made with the page turned horizontally, this urgently rendered waterfront or canal sketch is too slight for ready identification. It is possible that the parallel strokes to the right of the centre indicate the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s), as seen on folio 61 verso (D31911). The latter is in the same rough mode, as are most of those filling the remainder of the book up to folio 69 recto (D31926), sometimes with identifiable landmarks but often rushed to the point of incoherence, perhaps either on account of stormy weather (see under the recto; D31908) or failing light.