Lot Essay
This is one of a series of watercolour landscapes painted at and near Farnley Hall, Yorkshire, the house of Turner's patron Walter Fawkes; Fawkes referred to these as 'the Wharfedales' as they were of views in and around the River Wharfe. The series numbers about forty in all, painted between about 1815 and 1824. Unlike Fawkes's watercolours of the Rhine and Swiss and Italian subjects, the majority of these local scenes seem to have remained in the family.
The River Wharfe is seen from a site about a mile west of Farnley Hall, with the rocky crest of Otley Chevin in the distance and Caley Park on the slopes below. The watercolour is based on a drawing in Turner's 'Hastings' sketchbook (Tate Collection, Turner Bequest CXXXIX-35a, 36 see Fig. 1 overleaf); the sketchbook is watermarked 1815 and seems to have been used in this and the following year. The watercolour, with its strong blues and particularly marked use of bodycolour, is probably one of the first of the series; David Hill, in the catalogue of the Turner in Yorkshire exhibition, groups it with The Valley of the Washburn with Leathley Church (Wilton, loc.cit., no. 627, illustrated).
Walter Fawkes and Lord Egremont were Turner's most important patrons but Walter Fawkes owned the greatest number of Turner's works. Thornbury records that Turner and Fawkes first met 'in the course of an early topographical tour in the district [the West Riding of Yorkshire], when he was visiting Richmond for Whitaker, or sketching for Lord Harewood'; this would have been in about 1797-9. They probably met again in Switzerland in 1802: Fawkes purchased Glacier and Source of the Arveiron (R.A. 1803; Wilton no. 365) and acquired two more Swiss watercolours the following year (Wilton no. 366-7), continuing to buy nearly all of Turner's Swiss subjects until 1810. Fawkes continued to acquire exhibition watercolours from Turner until 1820 (Wilton no. 420, etc.), but also bought the less formal local views, of which our drawing is an example, and the series of fifty-one Rhine views of 1817.
The artist first visited Farnley Hall in 1808 and from 1810 was a frequent guest until Fawkes's death in 1825. In 1819 Fawkes showed his collection of British paintings and watercolours at his London house in Grosvenor Place. Turner's work dominated the exhibition with forty watercolours in the Large Drawing Room, and in the Small Bow Drawing Room 'Twenty Sketches made in Wharfedale, Yorkshire'. Fawkes dedicated the catalogue to him:
'My dear Sir, - The unbought and spontaneous expression of the public opinion respecting my collection of Water Colour Drawings, decidedly points out to whom this little Catalogue should be inscribed. To you, therefore, I dedicate it; first, as an act of duty; and, secondly, as an Offering of Friendship: for, be assured, I can never look at it without intensely feeling the delight I have experienced during the greater part of my life, from the exercise of your talent and the pleasure of your society. That you may, year after year reap an accession of fame and fortune, is the anxious wish of Your sincere Friend, W. Fawkes.'
The River Wharfe is seen from a site about a mile west of Farnley Hall, with the rocky crest of Otley Chevin in the distance and Caley Park on the slopes below. The watercolour is based on a drawing in Turner's 'Hastings' sketchbook (Tate Collection, Turner Bequest CXXXIX-35a, 36 see Fig. 1 overleaf); the sketchbook is watermarked 1815 and seems to have been used in this and the following year. The watercolour, with its strong blues and particularly marked use of bodycolour, is probably one of the first of the series; David Hill, in the catalogue of the Turner in Yorkshire exhibition, groups it with The Valley of the Washburn with Leathley Church (Wilton, loc.cit., no. 627, illustrated).
Walter Fawkes and Lord Egremont were Turner's most important patrons but Walter Fawkes owned the greatest number of Turner's works. Thornbury records that Turner and Fawkes first met 'in the course of an early topographical tour in the district [the West Riding of Yorkshire], when he was visiting Richmond for Whitaker, or sketching for Lord Harewood'; this would have been in about 1797-9. They probably met again in Switzerland in 1802: Fawkes purchased Glacier and Source of the Arveiron (R.A. 1803; Wilton no. 365) and acquired two more Swiss watercolours the following year (Wilton no. 366-7), continuing to buy nearly all of Turner's Swiss subjects until 1810. Fawkes continued to acquire exhibition watercolours from Turner until 1820 (Wilton no. 420, etc.), but also bought the less formal local views, of which our drawing is an example, and the series of fifty-one Rhine views of 1817.
The artist first visited Farnley Hall in 1808 and from 1810 was a frequent guest until Fawkes's death in 1825. In 1819 Fawkes showed his collection of British paintings and watercolours at his London house in Grosvenor Place. Turner's work dominated the exhibition with forty watercolours in the Large Drawing Room, and in the Small Bow Drawing Room 'Twenty Sketches made in Wharfedale, Yorkshire'. Fawkes dedicated the catalogue to him:
'My dear Sir, - The unbought and spontaneous expression of the public opinion respecting my collection of Water Colour Drawings, decidedly points out to whom this little Catalogue should be inscribed. To you, therefore, I dedicate it; first, as an act of duty; and, secondly, as an Offering of Friendship: for, be assured, I can never look at it without intensely feeling the delight I have experienced during the greater part of my life, from the exercise of your talent and the pleasure of your society. That you may, year after year reap an accession of fame and fortune, is the anxious wish of Your sincere Friend, W. Fawkes.'