Joseph Mallord William Turner

Rendered with swift and cursory handling, here Turner records a sunset over a valley with a river, or road, depicted in the foreground. This sketch, and those on Tate D18379, D18477; Turner Bequest CCX 42, 93, are almost certainly connected to the sky study and sunset depicted on Tate D18478; Turner Bequest CCX 93a which is believed to have been taken at Farnley Hall, North Yorkshire, on 30 November 1824. Farnley was the house of Turner’s close friend and patron Sir Walter Fawkes. If a river is indeed depicted in the foreground of this sketch, it could be that Turner pictures part of the River Washburn or the upper valley of the Wharfe which flows nearby Farnley Hall through Wharfedale.