176 drawings selected from the Turner Bequest in the Dept. of Prints and Drawings, British Museum. The essence of J.M.W. Turner's vision is in his 20,000 sketches, which document his development like a vast pictorial diary. This handsome book contains the largest selection of the sketches of his formative years ever reproduced in one volume. Each sketch is as close to its actual size as possible ; many are reproduced in four-color offset lithography, so that they are extraordinarily faithful to the original work. Although Turner's sketches are admired as immediate, intimate revelations of his genius, these early sketchbooks - belonging to the decade of the artist's life written off by Ruskin as the "learning" period - have been unjustly neglected. The young Turner was an accomplished draughtsman, a brilliant watercolorist, and an extraordinary observer of nature. His early work reveals his sensitivity to the moods of weather and landscape, and the originality of his extremely direct technique. The early sketches also demonstrate the precise study of light and atmosphere that underlay the revolutionary landscapes of his later years. The text follows the energetic, observant young artist on his travels in the England, Wales, and Scotland of the late Eighteenth Century. The beautiful sketches, reproduced in near facsimile, show the early stages of the artist's self development and the emergence of a style that captured brilliantly the fleeting effects of nature and the visual qualities of an England still largely unmechanized. The silence of the English landscape was broken only by the creaking of windmills ; her rivers were frequented by sailing ships ; her towns were dominated by gothic towers ; and her mountains were still remote and wild. Working on a small scale, swiftly and decisively, the young Turner laid the foundation for a career that has led many critics to call him "the first modern painter."--Provided by publisher.