This oil sketch has always been poorly dated. Technical examination shows it to be related to paintings of 1828-1829 on the same type of stretcher as those which were obtained in Rome at that time. The sketch was done on the unprimed side of the canvas, and x-radiography shows a compositional change, later painted out, in one figure. This figure is not painted in Turner's usual style at that period, and was done, with the background, later than the first, Turneresque, one. The later one may have been painted by C.R. Eastlake, who was then sharing a studio with Turner. (Abstractor's note: for the art-historical case, see A. Wilson pp. 14-33 in the same issue.)