On a Lee Shore (1) sketchbook c.1801–2.
“Finberg dated the two On a Lee Shore books (see also On
a Lee Shore (2)) to 1800–2, but it is clear that all the drawings on their
total of sixteen leaves were executed at much the same time, which was in all probability
the moment when Turner was contemplating ideas for the picture that became
Fishermen upon a Lee-Shore, in Squally Weather, exhibited at the Royal Academy
in 1802. Several studies for that picture, annotated by Turner ‘Lee Shore’, are
in the much larger Calais Pier sketchbook. It is most likely that these two
improvised Lee Shore books were used on a single occasion when Turner was able
to study the sea in rough conditions, perhaps at Margate.”