Joseph Mallord William Turner R.A.

Sam Mendel of Manley Hall, before 1875;
John Knowles, his sale, London, Christie's, 19 May 1877, lot 96;
John Knowles, his sale, London, Christie's, 3 June 1880, lot 486;
James Barrow, his Executor's Sale, Liverpool, Samuel Lever Exchange Gallery, 17 May 1918, lot 188, bt. King;
J.M. Harvey (died 1953) thence to his widow;
Mrs Nuttall, from whom bt. by Agnew's London, 1974;
with Richard Green, London;
M.M. Yamanaka, Tokyo;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 1 July 2004, lot 17 where bt. by the present owner

Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Turner, 16 August - 5 October 1986, no. 76;
Kyoto, Municipal Museum of Art, Turner, 14 October - 16 November 1986, no. 76

Sir W. Armstrong, Turner, 1902, p. 253;
A. Wilton, J.M.W. Turner His Life and Work, 1979, pp.403-404, no. 885;
E. Shanes, Turner's Picturesque Views in England and Wales, 1983, p. 152, no. 89:
E. Shanes, Turner's Watercolour Explorations 1810-1842, 1997, p. 43

 

Support This watercolour is on a Whatman type wove paper attached at its edges to a conservation board. This arrangement has been done fairly recently. The sheet is in a good condition and may have been conserved in the last few years. There are the remains of a slight mount stain at the edges and some very small cuts from glass damage in the sky above the mast on the left. Medium Typical of Turner's watercolours, that have been framed and glazed for display, probably for many years, this one has lost some of the brightness in the delicate tints including crimson lake, gamboge and indigo, which would have made the sun-set more vibrant. However it is still a lively and attractive watercolour. There is a little retouching near the left edge, towards the foot. Note: This work was viewed outside studio conditions. We would like to thank Jane McAusland for providing this condition report.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This serene watercolour was drawn in the early 1830s.  Flint Castle can be seen on the horizon silhouetted against a splendid sunrise.  A mounted figure with a group of horses approaches a fishing boat anchored in the shallows and beyond another sailing boat unfurls its sails and prepares for the day ahead.  Two early morning shrimpers wade through the shallows and in the near foreground a fisherman sits mending his nets and admiring the view beyond.

After his first visit to Flint Castle in 1792, Turner drew two watercolours of the ruin,^[1] that were engraved in 1795 and 1797.^[2]He returned to the area in 1799 and there is a drawing of Flint Castle and the Dee Estuary in the Dolbarden Sketchbook (TB XLVI 99).  During the 1820s he visited the Castle again and made a view that was reproduced in mezzotint for his Liber Studiorum.  In circa 1830 he made a colour study of a sunset or sunrise and this is thought to relate to the present richly coloured watercolour (TB CCLXIV a 143-D35986) which he executed soon afterwards.  In both the colour study and the present work the rays of the sun draw the viewer's eye outwards towards the edge of the image, mirroring the effect of peripheral vision, a device repeated in many of his later watercolours.  A much smaller drawing in the colour beginnings group, might also represent Flint Castle, but depicts the view looking south eastwards (TB CCLXIII 317).  A second version of the castle was made in 1835 and engraved for his Picturesque View in England and Wales (National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff).^[3]

Turner's 1835 watercolour of Flint Castle compares closely to the present work.  The compositions are very similar as is the dramatic colouring and attention to detail.  John Ruskin once owned the later watercolour and wrote of it as 'the loveliest piece of pure-watercolour painting in my whole collection; nor do I know anything elsewhere that can compare, and little that can rival, the play of light on the sea surface and the infinite purity of colour in the ripples of it as they near the sand.  The violent green and orange in the near figures are in themselves painful; but they are of invaluable use in throwing all the green in the water, and warm colours of the castle and sky, into aerial distance; and the effect of the light would have been impossible without them'.^[4] Ruskin's enraptured comments and his description of the 'play of light' and 'the purity of colour' of Turner's 1835 view of the castle might equally be applied to the present work.

Eric Shanes has suggested that the present watercolour demonstrates a greater degree of naturalism than the view which Turner executed in 1835.^[5] It also shows the technical mastery the artist had achieved by the 1830s.  Here, he has used a sponge or a cloth to draw out the colour from the paper and create the sun, its rays across the sky and its reflection off the water.  The white tones of the corner also appear to have been made by the removal of the underlying colour to reveal the white of the paper beneath.  Some of the other whites, including the ripples on the water, were scratched out, either by Turner's thumbnail (which he kept sharpened for the purpose) or perhaps the end of his brush.  Turner has also concentrated on detail in order to create a heightened sense of naturalism in this watercolour.  The touches of colour in the sky are made up of minute hatchings and stipplings, and there is even a thumbprint in the blue paint on the depiction of the castle in the middle distance. These are, however, overwhelmed by the main feature of this watercolour, the reds, yellows and blues in the vast dome-like sky capturing the first moments of dawn.

1. A. Wilton, J.M.W. Turner, His Life and Work, 1979, nos. 97 and 108
2. W.G. Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., 1913, nos. 21 and 11
3. A. Wilton, J.M.W. Turner, His Life and Work, 1979, no. 868
4. J. Ruskin, Notes, 1904, ed., vol., XIII, p. 442
5. E. Shanes, Turner's Picturesque Views in England and Wales, 1983, p. 152