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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dovestone Crag in Hall Beck Gill, near Farnley Hall c.1816

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 296 Recto:
Dovestone Crag in Hall Beck Gill, near Farnley Hall c.1816
D11897
Turner Bequest CXLIX 296
Pencil on white wove paper, 149 x 93 mm
There is the trace of an inscription in red ink ‘296’ lower left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXLIX 296’ lower left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch portrays a number of diminutive figures below and on top of Dovestone Crag near the head of Hall Beck Gill (see notes to folio 302 verso; D11908), taken from a close viewpoint below the crag, looking westwards towards the head of the gill. Turner made a more elaborate sketch of the same material from a closer viewpoint (Tate D12099; Turner Bequest CLIV A), in which a variety of figures are picnicking at the foot of the crag. It is possible that the present sketch was made on the same occasion, although Turner might have visited the site on any of his numerous visits to nearby Farnley Hall, the seat of his Yorkshire friend and patron Walter Fawkes. He made another sketch of the subject from a slightly higher and more distant viewpoint in the Devonshire Rivers, No.3, and Wharfedale sketchbook (Tate D09798; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 9), which likewise might record the same occasion.
Verso:
Blank

David Hill
October 2008

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Dovestone Crag in Hall Beck Gill, near Farnley Hall c.1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2008, 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-dovestone-crag-in-hall-beck-gill-near-farnley-hall-r1144042, accessed 20 September 2024.