Joseph Mallord William Turner

Turner's route back to London took him through Lincolnshire, so that he passed the gates of Brocklesby Park, the home of Lord Yarborough. The family mausoleum there, designed by James Wyatt, is the subject of these two pencil views. Both come from a now disbound sketchbook, and are perhaps evidence that Turner stayed at Brocklesby in 1797. Alternatively, he could have made the sketches in the early autumn of 1798, when he is known to have travelled north again in order to make three watercolours for Lord Yarborough. None of that group survive; they were presumably destroyed in a fire at the house in 1898. However, the large colour study possibly records the composition of one of the finished works.

Gallery label, September 2004

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