For JMW Turner, sketchbooks allowed him to capture the world around him while he was travelling. The books came in all shapes and sizes, containing beautifully detailed watercolours and the quickest of pencil sketches, as well as shopping lists, medical advice and language survival phrases. These drawings often formed the basis for large scale oil paintings, once he was back in his studio. To mark 250 years since JMW Turner’s birth, Assistant Conservator Arantza Dobbels Busto lets us look inside a selection of the 280 sketchbooks in Tate’s collection – the largest collection of sketchbooks by Turner in the world. This is an extract from JMW Turner: On the Wing, a new multi-channel video installation exploring the artist’s obsession with travel, coming to Tate Britain this summer. Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl To license Tate films please email film.licensing@tate.org.uk
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