拍品 61
  • 61

約瑟夫·馬洛德·威廉·泰納

估價
1,000,000 - 1,500,000 USD
招標截止

描述

  • Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A.
  • 《瑞士勞瓦茲湖、施維茨和米滕山》
  • 鉛筆、水彩,以灰色墨水鋼筆和刮劃畫紙加強效果

來源

Mrs Sophia Booth (1798-1875) to whom given by the artist;
Daniel John Pound, her son by her first marriage;
By whom given to A. Austin;
London, Christie’s, 11 June 1909, lot 185, bt. Agnew’s, as ‘View on the Rhine’;
With Agnew’s, London;
W.H. Jones, London, Christie’s, 3 July 1942, lot 49, bt. Agnew’s, as ‘The Lake of Lucerne Brunnen in the distance’;
With Agnew’s, London;
L.B. Murray, by 1951 and by descent to his son;
D. Hoener;
Sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 21 May 1987, lot 30;
Alfred A. Taubman (1924-2015);
Sale, London, Sotheby’s, 11 April 1991, lot 77;
Property of a Gentleman, sale, London, Christie’s, 9 July 1996, lot 41, reproduced on the front cover;
There acquired by the present owner

展覽

London, Agnew’s, Watercolours, 1910, no. 184;
London, Agnew’s, Loan Exhibition of Watercolours by Turner, 1913, no. 117;
London, Agnew’s, Watercolours, 1919, no. 130;
London, Agnew’s, Centenary Loan Exhibition of Watercolour Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., in aid of The Artists' General Benevolent Institution, 1951, no. 96;
London, Agnew’s, 150th Anniversary Exhibition: Paintings and Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. in aid of The National Arts Collections Fund, 1967, no. 80;
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Turner und die Schweiz, 1976-7, no. 43;
London, Agnew’s, Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. (1775-1851), 28 February - 25 March 1994, no. 8

出版

A.J. Finberg, ‘Early English Watercolour Drawings by the Great Masters,’ The Studio, August 1919, pp. 20 and 45, no. 130, pl. XX (illustrated in color);
A. Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg and London 1979, pp. 478-9, no. 1488;
'News and Sales Record', Turner Studies, Summer 1987, vol. 7, no. 1, p. 64 (under Sotheby's, New York, 21 May 1987);
I. Warrell, Through Switzerland with Turner, London 1995, p. 71, under cat. no. 32 & p. 152, no. 8;
E. Shanes, Turner The Great Watercolours, London 2000, p. 238, under cat. no. 110

Condition

The following condition report was carried out by Jane McAusland. Support: This watercolour by Turner is on a sheet of fine, white, wove-type paper and at present attached at its edges to a board of conservation quality. There is a very small loss on the left edge, otherwise the paper is in a good, clean and undamaged condition. Medium: The medium is fresh and bright, though there is some tonal drop-back in the delicate washes particularly on the mountains, which are reflecting the evening sun. Note: This work was viewed outside studio conditions.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

拍品資料及來源

This unusually fresh watercolor, which is one of Turner’s most magnificent and celebrated late Swiss watercolors, was probably executed in 1843. Turner has positioned himself on Lake Lauerzersee, in the Canton of Schwyz, twenty-two kilometers east of Lucerne. It is early evening and moonlight illuminates the sublime mountain landscape and makes watery reflections on the glassy surface of the lake below. He looks to the south-east towards the monumental twin peaks of the Lesser and Great Mythens. Nestled in the slopes, lies the town of Schwyz, while in the middle distance, on the left, is the island of Schwanau, with its ruined castle and chapel. Drawn from nature, the sheet served as inspiration for Turner’s watercolor of the same title of circa 1848 which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (see fig. 1).

The images Turner created on his travels to Switzerland during the first half of the 1840s are considered by many to be amongst his very best. John Ruskin noted that ‘I look upon them as, in some respects, more valuable than his finished drawings, or his oil pictures, because they are the simple records of his first impressions and first purpose, and in most instances as true to the character of the places they represent as they are admirable in composition.’1

The 1843 summer tour saw him travel as far south as Lake Como, by way of Baden, Goldau, Schwyz, St. Gotthard, Via Mala, Bellinzona and the Tyrol. He was sixty-eight years old but he was also full of energy and enthusiasm. Ruskin recorded something of Turner’s working method, stating that ‘Turner used to walk about a town with a roll of thin paper in his pocket, and make a few scratches upon a sheet or two of it, which were so much shorthand indication of all he wished to remember. When he got to his inn in the evening, he completed the penciling rapidly, and added as much color as was needed to record his plan for the picture.’2

It is likely that Turner was attracted to Lake Lauerzersee having read the lengthy account of it in John Murray’s A Hand-book for Travellers in Switzerland and the Alps of Savoy and Piedmont, which he kept with him during his 1840s journeys.  Murray described Schwytz as ‘a mere village’ and recommended the Hirsch Inn, as a good place to stay. He also explained that the Castle of Schwanau, which stands in a ruinous state - on the island to the left in Turner’s composition, had been destroyed in 1308 to avenge ‘an outrage committed by the Seigneur, in carrying off a damsel against her will…’, and he recounted that there was a ‘wild and somber tradition attached to [the] island’, namely that ‘once a year cries are heard to come from it, and suddenly the ghost of the tyrant is seen to pass, chased by the vengeful spirit of a pale girl, bearing a torch, and shrieking wildly. At first he eludes her swiftness, but at length she gains upon him, and forces him into the lake…’3

In the present sheet Turner has created an image of superb atmospheric intensity, and yet he combines this with a sense of tranquility and calm. It was perhaps drawings such as this that Turner had in mind, when, in 1844, he explained to the Ruskin that ‘atmosphere is my style.’4 By this stage in his career, he had developed an extraordinarily rapid and varied technique that enabled him to capture the vast space before him not by virtue of solid boundaries so much as through the atmospheric effects of light and color. It was the air, as much as the mountains, that he wished to draw and this goal was achieved by a range of techniques, including close hatching, broad washes, scratching, pencil and pen and ink. By the use of such means, on only a small sheet, he was able to encompass an immense view. Turner’s ability to capture the feeling of light and color on such a small scale has rarely been surpassed.

This avant-garde approach highlights Turner’s revolutionary role in the art of landscape representation in watercolor. By studying works such as the present lot, it is easy to comprehend why the Art Union, in 1842, observed that ‘under Turner’s leadership, the art of watercolor painting had in our own time been revived with such extension of its capabilities, and such novelty in its manipulations, as to render it almost a new art.’ They concluded that Turner was quite ‘the wonder-working artist’.5

This picture is one of a group which belonged to Turner’s housekeeper and devoted companion Mrs Booth. Sophia Anne Booth was first married to Henry Pound by whom she had a son Daniel John. On Pound’s death she married John Booth, an old man who owned some property, and she moved him from Deal to Margate where she ran a boarding house on the sea front. John Booth died in 1833, and Turner soon formed a close relationship with his widow. At first she remained at Margate, but in the 1840s Turner bought a house at Chelsea overlooking the Thames. By 1846 he was living there with Sophia and her son Daniel.  Sophia Booth continued to look after Turner until his death in 1851, arranging his brushes and palette for him and making sure that he was properly fed.  In return, as a token of his deep affection, Turner gave her at least eight oil paintings and five watercolor drawings.6


1. E.T. Cook and A Wedderburn,The Works of John Ruskin, London 1904, vol. XII, p. 189
2. J. Hamilton,Turner A Life, London 1997, p. 295
3. J. Murray, A Hand-book for Travellers in Switzerland and the Alps of Savoy and Piedmont, London 1838, pp. 44 & 45
4. I. Warrell, Through Switzerland with Turner, London 1995, p. 15
5. I. Warrell, Turner, The Great Watercolours, London 2000. p. 45
6. A. Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, nos. P474, P475, P476, P477, P478, P480, P481, P511, P513, W1401, W1417, W1418, W1516