J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Finberg was incorrect in his tentative identification of the structure; the rather more imposing gateway from Menston Hall which he mentions1 is that recorded in the Devon Rivers, No.2 sketchbook (Tate D09675, D09677; Turner Bequest CXXXIII 5a, 6a), likely to have been used in 1814. The porch shown here comprises a doorway, inscription and flanking columns taken from Newall Old Hall, which stood near the Otley gates to the Farnley estate, in 1814.2 They can be seen in situ in a sketch of Newall Old Hall in Devon Rivers, No.2 (Tate D09673–D09674; Turner Bequest CXXXIII 4a–5).

As has been recognised,3 the present sketch relates to the gouache Front Door and Porch, Farnley (private collection).4 The castellations and carved coat of arms above the porch appear to be those recorded to the right of the doorway when it was at Newall. The porch stood at the north end of the east front of the old part of Farnley Hall, flanked by a wing extending out from the north-east corner of the house. These elements, beyond the main part of the east front shown in Turner’s gouache of The East Front of Farnley Hall, with the Flower Garden and a Sundial (private collection),5 do not survive. The porch is lightly indicated towards the right of the sketch of the whole of the east front on folio 31 recto (D09811; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 19), and is shown rather more clearly juxtaposed with the other elements in an engraving of about 1885 by C. Healey (Leeds Library & Information Services).

An etching of the porch (Tate impression: T05959) was published along with two other Farnley subjects in 1816 in Dr Whitaker’s antiquarian study of the Leeds area, Loidis and Elmete. There are numerous variations in detail and proportion between the present sketch, the gouache and the etching (which also has variant states), making their relationship and chronology somewhat uncertain.6 (For more on Whitaker and Loidis and Elmete, see the overall Introduction to the present grouping.)

This drawing is on the verso of a sketch of a kingfisher (D09789) for the Farnley ‘Ornithological Collection’ albums. There are other views at and around Farnley, nearby Fawkes properties and the surrounding countryside on folios 2 recto, 5 verso–6 recto, 30 verso–31 recto, 32 recto, 33 recto, 33 verso–34 recto, 35 recto, 36 recto, 55 recto and 83 verso (D09803, D09802, D09792, D09810, D09811, D09882, D09791, D09798, D09804, D09799, D08950, D09888; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 13, 12v, 3, 18a, 19, 78, 2, 2 verso, 9, 14, 10, 53, 83). For Fawkes and other Yorkshire views, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.

The drawing is upside down in relation to the drawing of the kingfisher on the recto (D09789) and to most of the later drawings in the sketchbook as now bound.