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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Tour of Yorkshire 1816 > Yorkshire 2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bear Park, Aysgarth, from the East 1816

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bear Park, Aysgarth, from the East’ 1816
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 134 Recto:
Bear Park, Aysgarth, from the East 1816
D11267
Turner Bequest CXLV 134
Pencil on white wove paper, 96 x 154 mm
Partial watermark ‘Smith | 812’
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘134’ top left, ascending vertically
Stamped in black with Turner Bequest number ‘CXLV 134’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the page turned horizontally, this is the right part of a two-page panorama, continued on folio 133 verso opposite (D11266), recording the view up Wensleydale from above Bear Park. The house survives today, part of a large farming complex. Bulmer’s History, Topography and Directory of North Yorkshire (Preston 1890) noted:
Bear Park (a corruption of Beaurepaire, the beautiful retreat) was long the property and residence of a branch of the Metcalfe family. It is beautifully situated near the falls of Aysgarth, and is now owned and occupied by Thomas Bradley, Esq. In the north wall of the house is a large sculptured stone, representing the sacred monograms, which is supposed to have been brought from Coverham Abbey.
The present author has dated this sketch to Sunday 28 July 1816.1

David Hill
April 2009

1
See Hill 1984, pp.52–8.

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Bear Park, Aysgarth, from the East 1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-bear-park-aysgarth-from-the-east-r1201853, accessed 19 May 2025.