Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A.

The River Washburn, near Lindley Bridge, Yorkshire

Auction Closed

July 7, 10:53 AM GMT

Estimate

50,000 - 70,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property of a gentleman

Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A.

London 1775 - 1851

The River Washburn, near Lindley Bridge, Yorkshire

Watercolour over pencil, heightened with bodycolor and scratching out on grey paper

329 by 441 mm

Walter Ramsden Hawksworth Fawkes (1769-1825);
by descent to Reverend Walter Hawksworth Fawkes (d. 1936);
his executor's sale, London, Christie’s, 2 July 1937, lot 54, bt. Allon Dawson;
by descent to the present owner

A Catalogue of the Oil Paintings and Watercolour Drawings and Sketches in Watercolour by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. in the Possession of F.H. Fawkes, 1850 (as 'Guy Barn, Bank and Ford' - not numbered);
A. Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg, 1979, p. 372, no. 624;
D. Hill, Turner in Yorkshire, York, 1980, p. 47, under no. 69

Save for two exhibitions at Agnew’s, London in the 1950s and 1960s, this exquisite watercolour has not been seen in public since it was sold at Christie’s in July 1937. Until that point it had been held at Farnley Hall, Yorkshire by the descendants of Walter Ramsden Hawkesworth Fawkes, Turner’s most important early patron and great friend.

So close was the friendship that Fawkes invited Turner to stay in Yorkshire for extended periods of time each year between 1808 and his death in 1825. Turner was welcomed as part of the family, joining in on shooting and fishing expeditions, as well be being given free rein to explore the estate and the wider countryside. So much was Turner part of life at Farnley that a room was set aside for him to work in where he stretched cords from wall to wall on which to hang his wetted tinted papers.

The present work has been dated to circa 1824/5 on account of its palette, and Professor David Hill has drawn particular comparisons between it and Turner’s Lindley Hall, with Lindley Bridge, a watercolour in which the artist makes extensive use of the colour mauve in his composition.¹ A pencil drawing by Turner, which shows nearly the same view as the present watercolor, once formed part of the now dismembered 'Farnley-Munro' sketchbook. This appeared on the art market in 2013 and is now in a private collection.

1. Wilton, op.cit, p. 372, no. 623