Beech Woods Oil Sketches by Turner

Acquisition of two oil sketches on paper, laid down on panel named 'Beech Wood with Gypsies seated in the Distance' and 'Beech Wood with Gypsies round a Campfire'. Each 17x19cm. These two sketches may have been painted in October 1799, in Kent, where Turner is recorded as painting from beech trees. They are among the earliest examples of his sketching in oils before his subject. They may have belonged to Sarah Danby, Turner's mistress from before 1800, from whom they were acquired in 1854.