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 4 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Upper Wensleydale from above West Burton, Aysgarth in the Middle Distance 1816

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Upper Wensleydale from above West Burton, Aysgarth in the Middle Distance’ 1816
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto:
Upper Wensleydale from above West Burton, Aysgarth in the Middle Distance 1816
D11457
Turner Bequest CXLVII 10
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 206 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Upper Wednesly Dale’ bottom left, and ‘x’ in far distance left of centre
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘279’ bottom right and ‘10’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CXLVII 10’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
From the northern edge of West Burton village Turner followed the lane from Flanders Hall for about a mile of quite steep climbing to reach a rock outcrop above Sorrelsykes Park. From here there is a panoramic view of Upper Wensleydale, looking over Aysgarth Church to the left of centre and Addleborough to the left, with the high moors above Askrigg and Hawes closing the distance. The ‘x’ in the left centre distance marks the vicinity of Hardraw and Cotter Force where he had sketched on the days immediately preceding (D11455). A sketch in the Yorkshire 2 sketchbook (Tate D11272; Turner Bequest CXLV 136a), made on the same visit, effectively continues the panorama to the left.
The effort required to reach this vantage point, and the fact that Turner seems to have made the climb solely for the view, rather than to continue on his main route, prompts the question of how he got to hear of it and found his way there. He presumably had local directions, and the scenery of the area appears to have had some local celebrity at least, from the presence of the nearby Belvedere Temple recorded two pages later in the sketchbook, on folio 12 recto (D11460).
Verso:
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David Hill
February 2009

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Upper Wensleydale from above West Burton, Aysgarth in the Middle Distance 1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-upper-wensleydale-from-above-west-burton-aysgarth-in-the-r1143591, accessed 23 April 2024.