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

Turned vertically, the whole page is taken up with the following pencil notes:

The upper part of the list is written over an existing two-line inscription in fainter pencil: the beginning of the first line is overwritten with ‘Waterloo’ and what seems to be ‘Ghent’, and ends, possibly with a ‘y’ under the first part of ‘Fawkes’; ‘January’ is then clearer, under the end of ‘Fawkes’ with its ‘y’ coinciding with the ‘4’ of ‘40’; the first part of the second line is overwritten with ‘Wheeler’ and the two dashes, and appears to end in ‘y’; ‘February’, or rather what appears to be ‘Febury’ is clearer, its ‘y’ overwritten by the ‘3’ of ‘30’. It is possible that the obscured words also signify one or both of these months, as they are repeated in a similar inscription on folio 60 recto (D12206; CLIV a 59).

This list serves to demonstrate the variety and complexity of Turner’s working activities at this time. The prices are assumed to be in guineas. ‘Waterloo Fawkes 40’ seems to refer to the watercolour The Field of Waterloo of about 1817, which was in collection of Turner’s Yorkshire patron Walter Fawkes and his descendants before passing to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (for other Waterloo material in the present book see under folio 1 recto; D12124).1

The significance of ‘Ghent’ is unclear, as no finished composition of this Belgian subject is recorded. The specific connotation of ‘Ships’ is also unknown. ‘Knights – 25’ might refer in some way to Henry Galley Knight (1786–1846), an amateur artist who may have owned or commissioned the Turner painting based on his own studies: View of the Temple of Jupiter Panellenius, in the Island of Aegina, with the Greek National Dance of the Romaika: the Acropolis of Athens in the Distance. Painted from a Sketch Taken by H. Gally Knight, Esq. in 1810, exhibited in 1816 (private collection).2

‘Wheeler – – 30’ has been linked by Edward Yardley to the watercolour Cologne (private collection),3 commissioned by the collector James Rivington Wheeler around 1818. The subject is listed as ‘Wheelers Cologne’ in the Hints River sketchbook (Tate D10646; Turner Bequest CXLI 35a).4 Cecilia Powell dates Wheeler’s payment to ‘some time between 1818 and 1820’.5

‘Allason – 20’, is taken by Powell to refer to a payment for a watercolour (private collection),6 which she dates to 1817–18; it was engraved as Antiquities at Pola for Allason’s Picturesque Views of the Antiquities of Pola, in Istria, published by John Murray in 1819. As with the ‘Wheeler’ work, the subject is also listed, as ‘Allasons Pola’ in the Hints River sketchbook (Tate D10646; Turner Bequest CXLI 35a).7 Yardley has shown that the work entered James Rivington Wheeler’s collection as a gift from Turner, so the fee may relate to an initial loan of the watercolour for engraving.8

‘Cooke. Vesuvius – 30’ indicates payment by the engraver and publisher W.B. Cooke in relation to two watercolours of about 1817 showing the volcano, and noted in Cooke’s accounts for 1818: ‘Paid Mr. Turner for one Drawing of Vesuvius (Pompeii) 15 15 0’ and ‘August 21. | Paid Mr. Turner for another Drawing of Vesuvius, for Pompeii 15 15 0’.9 These entries in the equivalent pounds and shillings apparently correspond with the watercolours Bay of Naples (Vesuvius Angry) (Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead)10 and Bay of Naples (Vesuvius in Repose) (private collection),11 ‘said to have been engraved by Cooke for a work entitled Delineations of Pompeii’.12

‘Richmond 25’ may refer to either of the watercolours Richmond, Yorkshire (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)13 or Richmond Castle and Town (currently untraced),14 made in about 1818 and engraved respectively for Whitaker’s History of Richmondshire in 1819 (Tate impressions: T04439–T04441, T06033) and 1820 (Tate impressions: T04442, T06034, T06035). The lost composition was shown at the Northern Society exhibition in Leeds in 1822 (121), priced at 25 guineas.15

‘Guide to Stratford (?) 30’ is Finberg’s reading, although the second word could be ‘D^o’ (ditto) and there is no upstroke apparent from the last letter, and the words and their significance remain obscure.

‘Raby – 200’ is construed by Butlin and Joll as the price of Turner’s oil Raby Castle, the Seat of the Earl of Darlington (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore), commissioned by the Earl and exhibited in 1818.16 They note that this ‘seems low in comparison’17 with the next price on the list, ‘Dort. 550’, which indicates Dort, or Dordrecht, the Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed, also exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven),18 and bought by Walter Fawkes for 500 guineas according to contemporary sources.19 There is a sketch of the composition on folio 70 recto (D12223).

Finberg read the line bracketed after ‘Scarboro. 30’ as ‘Castle & Town’ but the words are uncertain. Of several variants, this may refer to the watercolour of Scarborough dated 1818 (private collection); its initial owner is not recorded.20

‘Murray. – 400’, as Cecilia Powell has outlined, probably refers to an expected total payment for twenty watercolours after James Hakewill’s pencil drawings, commissioned to be engraved for the latter’s Picturesque Tour of Italy, published by John Murray between 1818 and 1820, although only eighteen were eventually reproduced;21 Turner is known to have received 200 guineas from Murray in June 1818 for the first batch of ten, but this is the only payment now recorded in relation to the project.22

As with ‘Vesuvius’ above, ‘Cooke – Hastings 40’ and ‘Coast. 30’ appears to refer to W.B. Cooke, whose accounts for 1818 noted:

Cooke’s first figure in pounds equates to 40 guineas, and the next three items in pounds and shillings total 30 guineas, Turner’s figure for ‘Coast’. ‘Hastings’ is the watercolour Hastings from the Sea (traditionally but inaccurately known as ‘Hastings: Deep Sea Fishing’) of 1818 (British Museum, London).24 Cooke intended to engrave it for a series of ‘Views at Hastings and its vicinity’, a sequel to the Views in Sussex taken from Turner’s watercolours owned by Jack Fuller, but the Hastings scheme did not go ahead. (For more on these projects, see David Blayney Brown’s introduction to the ‘East Sussex c.1806–20’ section of the present catalogue.25)

The next three items are watercolours for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England: the first (untraced),26 was engraved in 1820 as Watchet, Somersetshire (Tate impressions: T04397, T05455–T05463, T05981); the second (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight),27 in 1821 as Minehead and Dunster Castle, Somersetshire (Tate impressions: T04404, T05453, T05454, T05987); and the third (untraced) in 1826 as Mount Edgecomb, Devonshire (Tate impressions: T05401, T04423, T05999).28 For more on the Southern Coast, see the present author’s Introduction to the ‘West Country 1811’ section of this catalogue.

Concerning ‘Rye. Battle 16’, there is a July 1818 entry in Cooke’s accounts reading ‘Battle Abbey 6 6 0’.29 Both references may be to the untraced watercolour design of about 1816, Battle Abbey, the Spot where Harold Fell,30 engraved in 1819 for Cooke’s Views in Sussex (Tate impressions: T04428–T04430, T06002). There is apparently another reference to the subject inside the back cover (D40853). ‘Rye’ is less certain, as the town does not feature among the published Views in Sussex, but a watercolour View of Rye, usually dated to 1820 or later (National Museum Wales, Cardiff),31 was engraved in 1824 for the Southern Coast (Tate impressions: T04407, T04408, T05270–T05273, T05989).

There is a list of works of about 1819 with ‘Battle’ and ‘Rye’ in conjunction in the Aesacus and Hesperie sketchbook (Tate D13805; Turner Bequest CLXIX 36).

Turner’s inscription ‘M^r Cooke’ on folio 40 recto (D12179) is presumably also in reference to W.B. or George Cooke.