Several years ago I posted about some of Turner’s sketchbooks that were available in book form: J. M. W. Turner Sketchbooks.

I recently went to another exhibition of Turner’s work, this time at the Yale Center for British Art. In the exhibition, there was an actual sketchbook displayed in a plexiglass case, opened to a beautiful spread that looks as if it could have been painted yesterday:

Happily, these photos weren’t the only way for me to remember it. Yale has also published a beautiful facsimile edition of this sketchbook: Turner’s Last Sketchbook. Every page is reproduced at actual size, even the covers and the gorgeous marbled endpapers. Even the pages he left blank! He worked from both ends of the sketchbook, so you have to turn the book upside down to see some of the spreads as intended. It is really lovely, giving the intimate feel of an artist’s experiments and scribbles and visual note-taking.

The introduction to the book mentions that this kind of notebook was known as a “pocketbook,” and was usually used vertically. The label in the inside front cover confirms that intended orientation, noting that it was made and/or sold by “Pilsworth, Stationer, Printer & Account Book Manufacturer.”

This sketchbook is also referred to as “The Channel Sketchbook.” You can see all the pages digitized at the Yale Center for British Art’s website.

The sketchbook above is the last known intact sketchbook used by Turner, but I also have a facsimile of one he used almost 50 years earlier, which is known as The ‘Wilson’ Sketchbook. This one is so tiny! And the work inside is very different, from a time when Turner was experimenting with a darker ground. This facsimile isn’t quite as complete– they don’t show the outside covers of the sketchbook.

Turner was a bit of a notebook addict: these are just two of the over 300 sketchbooks he filled during his lifetime! I love seeing how these little pages relate to his larger paintings– you really get the sense of an artist just quickly capturing momentary impressions.

These and other facsimile sketchbooks are included in my Amazon shop, in the Artists’ Facsimile Sketchbooks section.

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