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Lot Essay
This beautifully-observed rendering of the romantic, ivy-clad ruins of Harewood Castle, shown from the South East, towering over the expansive Wharfe valley, is a rare, early work in oil by Turner. It was likely executed following a highly productive and formative tour of the North of England in the summer of 1797. David Hill, in his catalogue Turner in the North, which accompanied an exhibition at Tate Gallery, London, and Harewood House, Yorkshire (October 1996 - June 1997), heralds this as a turning point in Turner’s early career, marking the ‘origin of his success’ (Hill, op. cit., 1996, p. 1), when Turner transformed himself from a mere architectural draughtsman into a serious and innovative landscape painter.
Harewood House and Castle, situated between Leeds and Harrogate, almost certainly provided the main impetus for Turner’s tour of the North in the summer of 1797, since Edward, Viscount Lascelles (1764-1814), son of the 1st Earl of Harewood, had invited Turner to Yorkshire to make a series of views of the House, Castle and grounds, presenting an excellent opportunity to explore the surrounding region. Hill estimated that Turner must have covered roughly 1,000 miles over the course of eight weeks. Two large, leather-bound sketchbooks in the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain, containing nearly 200 drawings, are testament to his boundless energy, extraordinary productivity and eagerness to record the ever-changing landscapes, and important architectural landmarks of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, Tweedale, Lincolnshire, Northampthonshire, Lancashire and beyond. The sketchbooks feature meticulous drawings of Kirkstall Abbey, Ripon Cathedral, Fountains Abbey, Melrose Abbey and Durham.
Edward Lascelles was a person of ‘very keen artistic sensibilities and interests’ (T. Borenius, Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings at Harewood House and elsewhere in the Collection of the Earl of Harewood, Oxford, 1936, p. v). Indeed, John Hoppner, who visited Harewood in the autumn of 1795, told the diarist Joseph Farington that: ‘young Mr. Lascelles … has a taste for the arts & has practised a little’ (The Farington Diary, James Greig ed., 1922, I, p. 265). Lascelles championed many young, up-and-coming avant-garde artists, including Thomas Girtin, John Varley and John Sell Cotman. He may have been introduced to Turner by Viscount Malden, later Earl of Essex, of Cassiobury Park near Watford. Lascelles was a frequent visitor to Cassiobury and would no doubt have seen the early work of both Turner and Girtin that his friend had commissioned.
Following his tour, Turner executed a series of six large watercolours (approx. 50 x 60 cm.) for Edward Lascelles, comprising four views of Harewood House and two of the 14th Century Castle ruins nearby. He was paid 10 guineas for each of the watercolours, which were delivered in two batches, the first two in November 1797 and the remaining four in March 1798. In addition to the series of Harewood views, Lascelles bought from Turner works depicting Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire and Norham Castle on the Tweed, as well as two spectacular watercolours following the artist’s election as Royal Academician in 1802, of Lake Geneva and Pembroke Castle, the latter of which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1806. Lascelles’ patronage of Turner thus lasted the course of a decade, during which time the artist rose from comparative obscurity to become one of the most highly acclaimed artistic figures of the early nineteenth century.
Turner’s North of England sketchbook contains eight pencil sketches of the Castle ruins from inside and out, and from different angles and distances, including one from the South East (fig. 1; London, Tate, North of England sketchbook, TB XXXIV 67), as it appears in this oil. A large finished watercolour of the Castle from this same angle was given by the 4th Earl to his sister, Lady Louisa, in 1858 and descended in a private collection; a smaller watercolour of the composition was commissioned from Turner by a Mr. Kirshaw, and is also now in a private collection.
The smaller watercolour and the present oil follow the on-the-spot pencil sketch more faithfully than the large finished watercolour, in their inclusion of two ponies and the precise rendering of the expansive Wharfe valley beyond; it is possible in both to trace the course of the river from the bridge at the right, past the mill and weir until it disappears at the foot of the moors above Farnley in the distance. In the large watercolour, the ponies are omitted and replaced with two figures of an artist (possibly Turner himself) and his companion (perhaps Girtin or Lascelles?), and the distant horizon is enhanced with rich blue tones, adding to the overall atmosphere of the piece.
Assuming the small watercolour was executed first, David Hill thought it unlikely that: ‘Turner himself would have repeated the composition so closely’ in oil (op. cit., 1995, p. 61, note 46; op. cit., 1996, p. 203, note 42). This would suggest that the oil was somehow derived from the smaller watercolour, since the sketch remained with Turner until his death, when it was bequeathed to Tate with the rest of the sketchbook, which remained largely unseen until it was catalogued by A.J. Finberg in the early 20th Century. However, Turner did in fact repeat subjects with only slight modifications between versions at precisely this date, for example his images of Norham Castle, Conway Castle and Dunstanburgh Castle (see M. Butlin, ‘Replicas and Variants’, in The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, 2001, pp. 257-8). Turner also met the demand from individual patrons for replicas based on his exhibited works.
On closer examination, there are a number of subtle differences between the smaller watercolour and the oil. While the overall shape and spread of the clouds is broadly similar, there are slight variations, especially on the right, where the precise form and mass of the clouds is more precisely defined in the oil. In addition, the ivy is not as sprawling in the oil as in the watercolour, where it extends above the horses’ heads. It is also worth noting that the sheep included in this oil also featured in the pencil sketch, but not in either of the watercolours of the scene. The way in which the trees are described in the present painting recalls studies Turner made in a notebook in which he copied his hero, the Welsh landscape painter, Richard Wilson (London, Tate, TB XXXVII 100-101). The same notebook, which was used around 1796-7, features a study of an earthy slope beside a road (TB XXXVII 62-3), which resembles the way the colours are built up in the foreground of this oil. Further comparison with the range of colours used here can be made with the oil sketches Turner made on paper while at Knockholt in 1799 (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum). These are especially interesting since they show that Turner worked on a variety of different supports – paper, board, wood, as well as canvas – during this crucial period of experimentation and development. The same underlying pink ground that emerges in the sky and in the ruins in this oil of Harewood Castle was also employed by Turner in his paintings of Dunstanburgh Castle (Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria) and Morning amongst the Coniston Falls, Cumberland (London, Tate), which were both exhibited in 1798. The looser handling of the foreground is also noteworthy, as it can be seen as a reaction to contemporary criticisms that Turner’s work was too laboured in comparison to that of his friend’s, Thomas Girtin.
Regarding the early provenance of the oil, in addition to the smaller-sized watercolour developed from the pencil sketch for Mr. Kirshaw, a second commission for a worked up piece after the sketch was received from a William Blake of Portland Place, not the celebrated painter-poet, but rather one of Turner’s pupils, which may relate to this oil. Turner evidently showed his sketchbook to prospective patrons and then annotated it with the resulting commissions: Mr. Kirshaw’s name is recorded in a list on the cover of the sketchbook; while Mr. Blake’s name is inscribed on the back of the actual sheet containing the drawing of Harewood Castle from the South East. Blake also commissioned views of Dolbadern and Conway Castles following Turner’s 1798 tour of Northern Wales, and it is possible that all three commissions were received at the same time, i.e. in the autumn of 1798. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the present oil was misidentified as a view of Norham Castle for much of its existence, and an anecdote (passed down to J.L. Roget from the engraver John Pye) suggests that Blake had considered acquiring a version of the perennially popular view of Norham Castle. According to the narrative, Blake was shown the finished work and told by the 22 year old Turner that someone else had offered four guineas above the price originally agreed for it. On hearing this, Blake put his claims on the picture to one side, thus calling Turner’s bluff. It is not known precisely which picture this tale relates to, but it is just possible that it could be associated with the present oil.
The 1989 Leger catalogue entry recorded that Lady Louisa (who was given the larger watercolour of Harewood Castle by her brother, the 4th Earl) had seen and recognised the oil as something she had known as a child when it resurfaced at the gallery of A. Meyers in 1874. It is therefore possible that it subsequently entered the Harewood collection, at some point in the 19th century.
We are grateful to Ian Warrell for his assistance with this catalogue entry.
Harewood House and Castle, situated between Leeds and Harrogate, almost certainly provided the main impetus for Turner’s tour of the North in the summer of 1797, since Edward, Viscount Lascelles (1764-1814), son of the 1st Earl of Harewood, had invited Turner to Yorkshire to make a series of views of the House, Castle and grounds, presenting an excellent opportunity to explore the surrounding region. Hill estimated that Turner must have covered roughly 1,000 miles over the course of eight weeks. Two large, leather-bound sketchbooks in the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain, containing nearly 200 drawings, are testament to his boundless energy, extraordinary productivity and eagerness to record the ever-changing landscapes, and important architectural landmarks of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, Tweedale, Lincolnshire, Northampthonshire, Lancashire and beyond. The sketchbooks feature meticulous drawings of Kirkstall Abbey, Ripon Cathedral, Fountains Abbey, Melrose Abbey and Durham.
Edward Lascelles was a person of ‘very keen artistic sensibilities and interests’ (T. Borenius, Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings at Harewood House and elsewhere in the Collection of the Earl of Harewood, Oxford, 1936, p. v). Indeed, John Hoppner, who visited Harewood in the autumn of 1795, told the diarist Joseph Farington that: ‘young Mr. Lascelles … has a taste for the arts & has practised a little’ (The Farington Diary, James Greig ed., 1922, I, p. 265). Lascelles championed many young, up-and-coming avant-garde artists, including Thomas Girtin, John Varley and John Sell Cotman. He may have been introduced to Turner by Viscount Malden, later Earl of Essex, of Cassiobury Park near Watford. Lascelles was a frequent visitor to Cassiobury and would no doubt have seen the early work of both Turner and Girtin that his friend had commissioned.
Following his tour, Turner executed a series of six large watercolours (approx. 50 x 60 cm.) for Edward Lascelles, comprising four views of Harewood House and two of the 14th Century Castle ruins nearby. He was paid 10 guineas for each of the watercolours, which were delivered in two batches, the first two in November 1797 and the remaining four in March 1798. In addition to the series of Harewood views, Lascelles bought from Turner works depicting Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire and Norham Castle on the Tweed, as well as two spectacular watercolours following the artist’s election as Royal Academician in 1802, of Lake Geneva and Pembroke Castle, the latter of which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1806. Lascelles’ patronage of Turner thus lasted the course of a decade, during which time the artist rose from comparative obscurity to become one of the most highly acclaimed artistic figures of the early nineteenth century.
Turner’s North of England sketchbook contains eight pencil sketches of the Castle ruins from inside and out, and from different angles and distances, including one from the South East (fig. 1; London, Tate, North of England sketchbook, TB XXXIV 67), as it appears in this oil. A large finished watercolour of the Castle from this same angle was given by the 4th Earl to his sister, Lady Louisa, in 1858 and descended in a private collection; a smaller watercolour of the composition was commissioned from Turner by a Mr. Kirshaw, and is also now in a private collection.
The smaller watercolour and the present oil follow the on-the-spot pencil sketch more faithfully than the large finished watercolour, in their inclusion of two ponies and the precise rendering of the expansive Wharfe valley beyond; it is possible in both to trace the course of the river from the bridge at the right, past the mill and weir until it disappears at the foot of the moors above Farnley in the distance. In the large watercolour, the ponies are omitted and replaced with two figures of an artist (possibly Turner himself) and his companion (perhaps Girtin or Lascelles?), and the distant horizon is enhanced with rich blue tones, adding to the overall atmosphere of the piece.
Assuming the small watercolour was executed first, David Hill thought it unlikely that: ‘Turner himself would have repeated the composition so closely’ in oil (op. cit., 1995, p. 61, note 46; op. cit., 1996, p. 203, note 42). This would suggest that the oil was somehow derived from the smaller watercolour, since the sketch remained with Turner until his death, when it was bequeathed to Tate with the rest of the sketchbook, which remained largely unseen until it was catalogued by A.J. Finberg in the early 20th Century. However, Turner did in fact repeat subjects with only slight modifications between versions at precisely this date, for example his images of Norham Castle, Conway Castle and Dunstanburgh Castle (see M. Butlin, ‘Replicas and Variants’, in The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, 2001, pp. 257-8). Turner also met the demand from individual patrons for replicas based on his exhibited works.
On closer examination, there are a number of subtle differences between the smaller watercolour and the oil. While the overall shape and spread of the clouds is broadly similar, there are slight variations, especially on the right, where the precise form and mass of the clouds is more precisely defined in the oil. In addition, the ivy is not as sprawling in the oil as in the watercolour, where it extends above the horses’ heads. It is also worth noting that the sheep included in this oil also featured in the pencil sketch, but not in either of the watercolours of the scene. The way in which the trees are described in the present painting recalls studies Turner made in a notebook in which he copied his hero, the Welsh landscape painter, Richard Wilson (London, Tate, TB XXXVII 100-101). The same notebook, which was used around 1796-7, features a study of an earthy slope beside a road (TB XXXVII 62-3), which resembles the way the colours are built up in the foreground of this oil. Further comparison with the range of colours used here can be made with the oil sketches Turner made on paper while at Knockholt in 1799 (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum). These are especially interesting since they show that Turner worked on a variety of different supports – paper, board, wood, as well as canvas – during this crucial period of experimentation and development. The same underlying pink ground that emerges in the sky and in the ruins in this oil of Harewood Castle was also employed by Turner in his paintings of Dunstanburgh Castle (Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria) and Morning amongst the Coniston Falls, Cumberland (London, Tate), which were both exhibited in 1798. The looser handling of the foreground is also noteworthy, as it can be seen as a reaction to contemporary criticisms that Turner’s work was too laboured in comparison to that of his friend’s, Thomas Girtin.
Regarding the early provenance of the oil, in addition to the smaller-sized watercolour developed from the pencil sketch for Mr. Kirshaw, a second commission for a worked up piece after the sketch was received from a William Blake of Portland Place, not the celebrated painter-poet, but rather one of Turner’s pupils, which may relate to this oil. Turner evidently showed his sketchbook to prospective patrons and then annotated it with the resulting commissions: Mr. Kirshaw’s name is recorded in a list on the cover of the sketchbook; while Mr. Blake’s name is inscribed on the back of the actual sheet containing the drawing of Harewood Castle from the South East. Blake also commissioned views of Dolbadern and Conway Castles following Turner’s 1798 tour of Northern Wales, and it is possible that all three commissions were received at the same time, i.e. in the autumn of 1798. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the present oil was misidentified as a view of Norham Castle for much of its existence, and an anecdote (passed down to J.L. Roget from the engraver John Pye) suggests that Blake had considered acquiring a version of the perennially popular view of Norham Castle. According to the narrative, Blake was shown the finished work and told by the 22 year old Turner that someone else had offered four guineas above the price originally agreed for it. On hearing this, Blake put his claims on the picture to one side, thus calling Turner’s bluff. It is not known precisely which picture this tale relates to, but it is just possible that it could be associated with the present oil.
The 1989 Leger catalogue entry recorded that Lady Louisa (who was given the larger watercolour of Harewood Castle by her brother, the 4th Earl) had seen and recognised the oil as something she had known as a child when it resurfaced at the gallery of A. Meyers in 1874. It is therefore possible that it subsequently entered the Harewood collection, at some point in the 19th century.
We are grateful to Ian Warrell for his assistance with this catalogue entry.