According to the catalogue of the Manchester City Art Gallery Ruskin Exhibition, Ruskin was very impressed by J. M. W. Turner's painting 'The Sun of Venice going to Sea', when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1843 (cat. no. 129). He admired especially 'the reflections and eddies of the calm water' (see 'Modern Painters,' vol. I). Accustomed to writing notes and making sketches of paintings, Ruskin 'forgot, or ignored, the rule forbidding visitors at the exhibition to copy the pictures' on display. This led to him being expelled from the gallery for making this sketch and 1907P143, a copy of a different section of the same painting. The same catalogue also states that in 1904 the sketches were owned by Mr and Mrs A. Severn. Joan Severn (nee Agnew) was Ruskin's cousin and the work of her husband, the artist Arthur Severn was heavily influenced by him.