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

This is the left half of a double-page spread continued to the right on folio 41 (D10944), opposite; the panorama is continued still further right on folio 42 (D10945). It is taken from near the Rustic Temple looking east to Magdalen Woods on the far bank, with the River Ure sweeping round at our feet from left to right. Details of Mowbray Castle and Mowbray Point Banqueting House are drawn at the bottom of the page. The Large Farnley sketchbook has a detailed drawing (Tate D09054; Turner Bequest CXXVIII 38) of the landscape recorded in the right half of this spread and its continuation on folio 42 (D10945), as seen from a similar angle but from the higher vantage point of the Banqueting House, which appears to be the culmination of Turner’s explorations at Hackfall in 1816.

Hackfall was laid out by William Aislabie about 1750. His father, John Aislabie was responsible for laying out the celebrated gardens at nearby Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey. William Fisher was their head gardener and a building near the river was named ‘Fisher’s Hall’ after him. Turner will have known of Hackfall through The Works of the Late Edward Dayes, published in 1805, to which he was a subscriber. Dayes had visited Hackfall on a tour of Yorkshire and Derbyshire in 1803, and devoted a distinct section of his account to its description.1 The Woods are now in the care of the Woodland Trust, and considerable work has been done since 2002 to preserve the historic buildings and improve access and appreciation.