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

Provenance:
...
Colnaghi, London
Bought 1948 by Ray Livingston Murphy, New York (died 1953)
Murphy estate, Christie’s, London, 19 November 1985 (26, as by William Daniell), withdrawn
Sold Christie’s, London, 18 March 1986 (109), acquired on behalf of Tate

The forces of General Baird took Seringapatam from Tipu Sultan in May 1799, bringing to an end the Mysore Wars. A large oil painting of the siege was produced by Robert Ker Porter (1777–1842), Turner’s colleague in the Royal Academy Schools; it is now in Tipu’s Summer Palace at Seringapatam. Porter made a series of engravings after it, which were widely circulated. Many other artists also recorded this important battle.

A group of three watercolours, formerly attributed to William Daniell (1769–1837) but in fact by Turner, apparently based on drawings by one or more eye–witnesses, show the Residence of the Mysore Rajah within the fort of Seringapatam, during the last three years of his confinement, Hoollay Deedy, or new Sally–port in the inner Rampart of Seringapatam, where Tippoo Sultaun was killed, on the 4th May 1799, and the present work, a general view of the siege with the British forces crossing the river Cauvery (all with Colnaghi, 1948; bought by Ray Livingston Murphy, offered for sale at Christie’s, London, 19 November 1985 as lots 24, 25 and 26, as by Daniell, but withdrawn).

A coloured study adumbrating the whole composition of this last of these subjects was in Turner’s studio, and is now in a private collection.1 A study for a further subject in the series is Tate D17190 (Turner Bequest CXCVI Z), which seems to have been based on an anonymous drawing. Hoolley Deedy was based on a drawing made on the spot by Thomas Sydenham (1780–1816), now in the India Office collection at the British Library, London.2 The watercolour of the siege itself follows a drawing by Captain Alexander Allan, present at the battle, which Turner might have seen either in the original or in the form of an engraving. Visible amid the smoke of battle are the fortifications of the city, the pyramidal gopura or entrance tower of the Hindu temple, and the minarets of the Mosque.

This is in many respects a perfunctory performance, but it is an extremely ambitious drawing, the first surviving battle scene in Turner’s oeuvre; he showed an oil painting of the Battle of the Nile, at 10 o'clock when the L'Orient Blew Up, from the Station of the Gun Boats between the Battery and Castle of Aboukir at the Royal Academy in 1799,3 but it has never been traced. Although there is no evidence for a commission it is likely that he was asked to make the series of Seringapatam subjects by someone like Allan or Sydenham; it possible that the commission came from Thomas and William Daniell, famous for their Indian views, whom Turner knew.

Technical notes:

The sheet is somewhat faded.

Verso:

Blank