Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A.

Loch Lomond, West Scotland

Auction Closed

January 31, 05:59 PM GMT

Estimate

50,000 - 80,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from a British Private Collection

Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A.

London 1775 - 1851

Loch Lomond, West Scotland

Watercolor over traces of pencil, heightened with pen and brown ink and stopping out;

signed lower right: JMW Turner RA

206 by 296 mm; 8⅛ by 11⅝ in.

Henry Bradley (1802-1870), of Leamington,
his sale, London, Christie's, 26 May 1860, lot 37, bt Agnew's,
with Agnew's, London,
probably Joseph Gillott (1799-1872), of Birmingham,
by descent to his son, Joseph Gillott of Berry Hall, Solihull, Warwickshire (d. 1904),
his executor's sale, London, Christie's, 30 April 1904, lot 25, bt Wallis,
with Scott & Fowles, London,
Patrick A. Valentine (1851-1916) of Greenwich, Connecticut,
by descent to his wife, Mary Lester Armour Valentine (d. 1965),
her sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, 18 April 1962, lot 66, bt jointly by Newhouse Galleries, New York & Agnew's, London,
by whom sold to a cousin of the present owner, May 1962

Aberdeen, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, 1992;
London, Agnew's, Turner Watercolours, 1994, no. 4

W.G. Rawlinson, The Engraved Works of J.M.W. Turner, vol. 1, London 1908, no. 74;
A. Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p. 340, no. 353
E. Yardley, 'Picture Notes', Turner Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 1985, pp. 54-6, illustr.;
E. Shanes, J.M.W. Turner, A Life in Art, Young Mr Turner, The First Forty Years 1775-1815, New Haven and London, 2016, p. 217, no. 261

Engraved:

by J. Heath for Joseph Mawman's Excursion to the Highlands and the English Lakes, 1805 (R. 74)

In May 1805 the present watercolor appeared in engraved form, along with Turner’s views of Patterdale on Lake Ullswater (lot 187) and Inverary on Loch Fyne, within Joseph Mawman’s book: An Excursion to the Highlands of Scotland and the English Lakes with Recollections, Descriptions and References to Historical Facts.

Turner has positioned himself near to the village of Tarbet on the western shores of Loch Lomond and he looks north-east towards a landscape that Mawman described as 'more beautiful and magnificent than anywhere to be found in Britain'.¹

All is calm and while the viewer’s eye is drawn deep into the vista, past the glass-like waters of the loch (which are punctuated with a single, white-sailed boat) and back towards the lofty hills beyond, in the foreground a group of tartan-clad figures sit and chat in the warm sunshine and, further to the right, a pair of shepherds quietly watch their flock.

The watercolor seems very likely to date to 1802 or 1803, the period immediately following Turner's inaugural tour to Scotland in the summer of 1801. Scotland’s landscape was a revelation for Turner and he told the fellow Royal Academician, Joseph Farington, that it was 'more picturesque than Wales - the lines of the mountains [being] finer and the rocks of larger masses'.² During his six weeks there he had drawn feverishly, filling eight sketchbooks and a large portfolio with impressions of the places he had visited. Three surviving drawings relate directly to the present watercolor, namely two on-the-spot sketches in Turner's Tummel Bridge Sketchbook and a large, detailed pencil and white chalk drawing, on purposely stained paper, that the artist probably drew in situ.³

This and the previous lot have a long and distinguished history. Their first known owner was Henry Bradley of Leamington, Worcestershire, a magistrate, noted master of hounds and patron of the arts. They may well have formed part of the collection of Joseph Gillott, the Birmingham pen manufacturer who became one of Turner's major patrons, and they were certainly included in his son's executor's sale in 1904, where Christie's noted that 'many of the Pictures and Drawings came from the celebrated Collection of Joseph Gillott Esq of Birmingham.' Later they crossed the Atlantic and entered the collection of Patrick A. Valentine of Chicago, before being acquired by the present owner's family in 1962.

We are very grateful to Ian Warrell and Neil Jeffares for their help when cataloguing this lot.

1. J. Mawman, An Excursion to the Highlands of Scotland and the English Lakes with Recollections, Descriptions and References to Historical Facts, London 1805, p. 167

2. Shanes, op. cit., p. 217

3. London, Tate Britain, Turner Bequest, ‘Mountains and Clouds’ and ‘Mountains round the head of Loch Lomond, partly hidden by cloud’ (T.B. LVII 5-6) and Loch Lomond from near Inversnaid (T.B. LVIII 46)