Turner's sketchbooks' offer perhaps themost appealing introduction to the artist. They give us a privileged look over Turner's shoulder, allowing us to witness the creation and development of ideas that can be traced through to his major paintings. In the absence of detailed written accounts of his extensive travels, the notebooks are also a record of his impressions of the many places he visited across Britain and Europe. This book is the first to survey the full range of Turner's sketchbooks, beginning with his teenage efforts and culminating in the atmospheric colour studies of his last years.

One of the most popular painters of all time, J.M.W. Turner created a remarkable collection of sketchbooks over the course of his career. The 'Skies' sketchbook takes its name from its many richly coloured sky studies. Most of the sketches in the book were presumably observed in England, but a few many have been seen in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. The dramatic consequence of the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815m darkening skies and reddening sunsets around the world, surely caught his attention. Turner's more intensely-coloured studies may document these effects which lasted for over a year. This edition of the sketchbook reproduces all these beautiful drawings in near-facsimile.

Up until a few years ago, biographies of both JMW Turner and John Ruskin had claimed that, in 1858, Ruskin burned bundles of erotic paintings and drawings by Turner in a fit of embarsassed Victorian censorship, to protect Turner's posthumous reputation. This title examines this little known aspect of the artist's oeuvre.