‘The Windmill and Lock and Sandycombe and Yorkshire sketchbooks include significant material relating to the genesis of Sandycombe Lodge, Turner’s small, self-designed house at Twickenham, then in the countryside to the west of London.

The artist had previously rented homes on the Thames up-river from London, at Isleworth and Hammersmith. He regarded the Thames west of London with a reverence founded on its associations with favourite poets such as James Thomson and Alexander Pope; he often sketched and painted the Thames in its modern aspect and also as an inspiration for classical compositions. Another of his heroes, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the President of the Royal Academy, had lived on Richmond Hill, with its famous view west across the Thames meadows to Twickenham and beyond as shown in Turner’s ambitious and evocative painting England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent’s Birthday.’ (From the Tate website here.)