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拍品专文
This and the following lot are works that counter the image of Turner as an isolated, anti-social figure. In fact, he is known to have enjoyed convivial boat parties while living beside the Thames at Twickenham, and was similarly at ease when staying with Walter Fawkes at Farnley Hall in Yorkshire, with Lord Egremont in Sussex, or with the architect John Nash (1752-1835) at his neo-medieval retreat at East Cowes, overlooking the main harbour on the Isle of Wight. In such easy-going environments Turner relaxed and, far from being the boorish and secretive artist of later legends, used his artistic skills to charm the fellow guests.
Both this and the following drawing were produced in 1827, whilst visiting Nash’s castle, apparently as generous tokens of the pleasure he took in the company of Harriet Petrie (1784-1849), according to a letter that accompanied the drawings (see Warrell, op.cit). Untypically, Turner completed each work by adding his initials with a flourish in the lower right corner.
At least three other presentation gift drawings of this type exist, two of them passed to Henry Vaughan in 1865 by the engraver Thomas Goff Lupton (1791-1873); they now belong to the National Galleries of Scotland, in Edinburgh, and the National Gallery of Ireland, in Dublin. As in the present pair, there is a contrast between a tranquil harbour scene focusing on a moored man-o'-War, with its reflection in the still waters, and the much more vigorous drama of conjunctions of shipping on the open sea. Turner set up the same kind of juxtaposition a year after his stay in two of the oil paintings he produced for Nash, which were first displayed at the Royal Academy in 1828, once again depicting the teeming quays and heavily-laden boats in the harbour at Cowes, and alongside it evoking the excitement of the Regatta coming to its final stages (Victoria and Albert Museum, and Indianapolis Museum of Art).
Whereas Turner adopted his standard Whatman paper for the Lupton/Vaughan drawings, he resourcefully made use of fragments of a sheet of Turnbull’s Superfine London Board when staying at Cowes with Harriet Petrie. This was a type of re-enforced drawing material, more usually enlisted to create visiting or playing cards (see Peter Bower, Turner’s Later Papers, 1999, pp.114-7). James Lawrence Turnbull (1788-1848), who manufactured the superfine board with his brother John, was based in Shoreditch at Holywell Mount on Curtain Road, an area not far from the pub The Ship and Bladebone that Turner maintained in East London.
We are grateful to Ian Warrell for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.
Both this and the following drawing were produced in 1827, whilst visiting Nash’s castle, apparently as generous tokens of the pleasure he took in the company of Harriet Petrie (1784-1849), according to a letter that accompanied the drawings (see Warrell, op.cit). Untypically, Turner completed each work by adding his initials with a flourish in the lower right corner.
At least three other presentation gift drawings of this type exist, two of them passed to Henry Vaughan in 1865 by the engraver Thomas Goff Lupton (1791-1873); they now belong to the National Galleries of Scotland, in Edinburgh, and the National Gallery of Ireland, in Dublin. As in the present pair, there is a contrast between a tranquil harbour scene focusing on a moored man-o'-War, with its reflection in the still waters, and the much more vigorous drama of conjunctions of shipping on the open sea. Turner set up the same kind of juxtaposition a year after his stay in two of the oil paintings he produced for Nash, which were first displayed at the Royal Academy in 1828, once again depicting the teeming quays and heavily-laden boats in the harbour at Cowes, and alongside it evoking the excitement of the Regatta coming to its final stages (Victoria and Albert Museum, and Indianapolis Museum of Art).
Whereas Turner adopted his standard Whatman paper for the Lupton/Vaughan drawings, he resourcefully made use of fragments of a sheet of Turnbull’s Superfine London Board when staying at Cowes with Harriet Petrie. This was a type of re-enforced drawing material, more usually enlisted to create visiting or playing cards (see Peter Bower, Turner’s Later Papers, 1999, pp.114-7). James Lawrence Turnbull (1788-1848), who manufactured the superfine board with his brother John, was based in Shoreditch at Holywell Mount on Curtain Road, an area not far from the pub The Ship and Bladebone that Turner maintained in East London.
We are grateful to Ian Warrell for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.