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

This is the left part of a double-page spread continued to the right on D12004; Turner Bequest CLIII 6, opposite, and further right on D12005; Turner Bequest CLIII 7, following, depicting Caley Crags from below. The sketch served as the basis of a finished watercolour, Caley Crags, with Deer (private collection),1 painted for Walter Fawkes of Farnley Hall about 1818. The finished watercolour is listed as ‘23 Rocks deer’ in the list of watercolours in hand (or intended) on another page of this sketchbook (D12013; Turner Bequest CLIII 11a).

Caley Crags, situated at the eastern end of Otley Chevin, offer a fine panorama over the Wharfe Valley towards Farnley Hall. They are the viewpoint of other sketches in the present sketchbook (D12009–D12010, D12011; Turner Bequest CLIII 9a–10, 11 looking west; and D12012–D12013; Turner Bequest CLIII 11a–12 looking north).

The inscription ‘Gosforth’ does not appear to be in Turner’s hand, and is probably by the same writer (perhaps Fawkes) as the inscription on D11996; Turner Bequest CLIII 1 proposing staffage additions to commissioned watercolours. Fawkes’s sister, Frances Elizabeth, was married to Charles John Brandling of Gosforth Park near Newcastle, and it may be that the inscription denotes the intended destination of the finished watercolour. In the event it seems to have taken its place in the Farnley collection.