Lot Essay
This watercolour is one of a series fo illustrations to The Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., commissioned by Robert Cadell in 1833; William Miller's engraving appears as the frontispiece to volume V, published the following year. THis publication was part of an ambitious scheme for which Cadell commissioned illustrations from Turner: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, published in 12 volumes 1833-4, The Prose Works, 28 volumes 1834-6, and J.G. Lockhart, Memories of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., 10 volumes, 1839 (see Finley, op. cit., and J. Piggott, Turner's Vignettes, exhibition catalogue, London, Tate Gallery, September 1993-February 1994, pp. 53-9, 87-9, 99, 119).
The designof these publications juxtaposed a landscape composition set at right-angles to the title-page on which appeared a vignett, in this case showing Hougoumont, a fortified farm on the battlefield of Waterloo (the engraving repr. Powell, op.cit, p. 115 no. 27, and Piggott, op.cit., p. 110 no. 90). They illustrate Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk, first published in January 1816 and barely disguising Scott's own letters during his tour of the Continent in 1815. The letters addressed to Paul's 'Cousin Peter' discuss recent events in France and the Low Countries, in particular the Battle of Waterloo, while theme 'to his Sister Margaret' deal with more everday matters such as local life and customs. This distinction is echoed in Turner's two juxtaposed illustrations: Brussels in distant View shows women working in the fields with the walls of the city and the cathedral of St. Gudule behind, while Hougoumont shows soldiers resting in front of the ruined farm, behind which rises the smoke that alludes to the fire that consumed the hay in the farmyard and the farmhouse itself (see Powell, loc.cit).
The watercolour is based on sketches on sever consequetive pages in Turner's Waterloo and Rhine sketchbook (Tate Gallery, Turner Bequest CLX 10V-13V; pages 11v-12v and 12v-13v repr. Powell, op.cit., p. 114). These were done in Turner's final Continental visit after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, when he also visited Waterloo and travelled up the Rhine. An iuntraced vignett watercolour of the Hotel de Ville, Brussels, included in the Munro of Novar sale of (6 April 1878, lot 68, may also, Wilton suggests, have been intended for The Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, but was not used (Wilton, op.cit., p. 436 no. 1146)
The designof these publications juxtaposed a landscape composition set at right-angles to the title-page on which appeared a vignett, in this case showing Hougoumont, a fortified farm on the battlefield of Waterloo (the engraving repr. Powell, op.cit, p. 115 no. 27, and Piggott, op.cit., p. 110 no. 90). They illustrate Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk, first published in January 1816 and barely disguising Scott's own letters during his tour of the Continent in 1815. The letters addressed to Paul's 'Cousin Peter' discuss recent events in France and the Low Countries, in particular the Battle of Waterloo, while theme 'to his Sister Margaret' deal with more everday matters such as local life and customs. This distinction is echoed in Turner's two juxtaposed illustrations: Brussels in distant View shows women working in the fields with the walls of the city and the cathedral of St. Gudule behind, while Hougoumont shows soldiers resting in front of the ruined farm, behind which rises the smoke that alludes to the fire that consumed the hay in the farmyard and the farmhouse itself (see Powell, loc.cit).
The watercolour is based on sketches on sever consequetive pages in Turner's Waterloo and Rhine sketchbook (Tate Gallery, Turner Bequest CLX 10V-13V; pages 11v-12v and 12v-13v repr. Powell, op.cit., p. 114). These were done in Turner's final Continental visit after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, when he also visited Waterloo and travelled up the Rhine. An iuntraced vignett watercolour of the Hotel de Ville, Brussels, included in the Munro of Novar sale of (6 April 1878, lot 68, may also, Wilton suggests, have been intended for The Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, but was not used (Wilton, op.cit., p. 436 no. 1146)