Joseph Mallord William Turner

Finberg’s suggestion of the general locale was presumably based on comparison with folio 12 in this sketchbook (D06834 Turner Bequest CIII 5), a view of Giggleswick on the River Ribble with Ingleborough in the distance. However, it named two features positioned in opposite directions. In fact the drawing shows Chapel-le-Dale looking north towards Whernside; the ‘winding river’ is Chapel Beck which runs south-west into the River Doe. Nestling below the ridge on the right is the tiny St Leonard’s Church, the subject of a larger pencil drawing (Tate D02383: Turner Bequest LI P) and a watercolour (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut),1 both looking in the other direction towards Ingleborough. A watercolour of Ingleborough is listed by Turner in the Greenwich sketchbook (Tate D06824; Turner Bequest CII 52) as destined for Walter Fawkes.

There are traces of watercolour along the top margin and part of a finger-print in greenish watercolour, lower right.