TURNER’S WATER-COLOURS
AT FARNLEY HALL
[Illustration: colophon]
TEXT BY ALEX. J. FINBERG
“THE STUDIO,” LTD., LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK
[Sidenote: TURNER’S PERSONAL RELATIONS WITH MR. W. FAWKE]
It is not known for certain exactly when or how Turner became acquainted
with Mr. Walter Ramsden Hawksworth Fawkes of Farnley Hall. Several
biographers say that Turner first met Mr. Fawkes about 1802, when the
artist was in Yorkshire making drawings for one of the series of
topographical works dealing with parts of Yorkshire which Dr. Whitaker,
the vicar of Whalley, prepared and published. But Whitaker’s “History of
the Parish of Whalley,” which was published about this date, contains no
reference to Farnley, and deals with a part of Yorkshire and Lancashire
at some distance from Farnley. The only book of Dr. Whitaker which
contains any illustrations connected with Farnley Hall is the “Loidis
and Elmete,” published in 1816, and we know that Turner had become
intimate with Mr. Fawkes some years before this date.
The first certain piece of evidence connecting Mr. Fawkes with Turner is
contained in some of the sketch-books used by the artist during his
first tour in Switzerland in the year 1802. Mr. Fawkes’s name is not
mentioned in full, but a capital “F” is written in ink on the margin or
back of several of the drawings. I take this to mean that a patron whose
name began with “F” had looked through Turner’s sketch-books at some
time after his return to London, and had selected certain subjects to be
carried out from sketches thus marked. That this patron was Mr. Fawkes
is established by the drawing made at Chamounix, which is inscribed in
Turner’s handwriting “_Mer de Glace, avec le Cabin de Blair_” (page 22
of the “St. Gothard and Mont Blanc” Sketch-Book in the National
Gallery). The finished water-colour now in the Farnley Hall Collection,
entitled _Blair’s Hut on the Montanvert and Mer de Glace_, is simply an
amplification of this sketch. Other subjects in these sketch-books which
Turner carried out for Mr. Fawkes are _Bonneville_, _Sallanches_, _The
Falls of the Reichenbach_, _The Valley of Chamounix_, _The Fall of the
Staubbach_, _The Lake of Lucerne from Flüelen_, _The Lake of Brienz with
the Ruins of the Castle of Ringgenberg_, and _Grenoble_.
The first point of connection between Mr. Fawkes and Turner thus seems
to have been the scenery of Switzerland and not that of Yorkshire. In a
description I have seen of Farnley Hall and its treasures, written soon
after it came into the possession of Mr. Walter Fawkes, the only
pictures mentioned are a series of “romantic landscapes in Switzerland
and Italy, admirably executed by Warwick and Smith.” The “Warwick and
Smith” of this description is probably a misprint for “Warwick Smith,”
the name by which John Smith, one of the earlier English water-colour
painters, was generally known. This series of Smith’s water-colours is
still preserved in one of the lumber rooms at Farnley Hall. The drawings
represent generally the same subjects as those which Turner treated.
Smith’s drawings are nearly all in monochrome, and, though they are not
without merit, they look very dull and old-fashioned when compared with
the Turners. It seems to me, therefore, extremely probable that Mr.
Fawkes was first attracted to Turner as the rising young artist of his
day, who was doing the same kind of work as Warwick Smith had done, but
who was doing it with much more imagination, vigour, and artistic skill.
If this surmise be correct, Turner made his first appearance at Farnley
Hall as the successor and transplanter of Warwick Smith. His artistic
function was to replace Smith’s rather dull and laboured transcripts
with his own brilliant and imaginative drawings.
The earliest of Turner’s works in the Farnley Hall Collection is that of
_The Mer de Glace, Chamounix_. This is probably the drawing exhibited at
the Royal Academy in 1803, under the title “_Glacier and Source of the
Arveron going up to the Mer de Glace, in the Valley of Chamouni_.” Mr.
Fawkes may have seen the drawing in the exhibition and bought it there
or afterwards in the artist’s studio. In a small pocket-book of Turner,
apparently in use about the year 1804, there is a note that Mr. Fawkes
had bought three water-colours for fifty guineas each. These are
described by the artist as _Great Devil’s Bridge Causeway_, _Upper Fall
of Riquenbach_ and _Mt. Blanc from St. Martin_. The first two subjects
are still at Farnley, the third is probably the _Mt. Blanc from the Val
d’Aosta_ which passed from the Farnley Collection before the present
owner came into possession. It was lent by Sir Donald Currie to the
exhibition of “Old Masters” at the Royal Academy in 1906.
An earlier entry in the same pocket-book is the record of a commission
for a small oil picture of _The Bowland, Lancashire_, to be painted for
Mr. Lister Parker. Mr. Parker was a neighbour of Mr. Fawkes, and that he
was also an intimate friend is proved by the inscription on the back of
a fine miniature of Napoleon Bonaparte, which is still preserved at
Farnley Hall. This inscription states that the miniature was bought in
Paris in 1802, and presented to Mr. Fawkes in the same year by his
sincere friend Mr. Lister Parker. So it is probable that Mr. Fawkes may
have heard Turner’s work talked about by his Yorkshire friends some time
before he bought any of the artist’s drawings, and it is quite possible
that he may have made Turner’s personal acquaintance through the
intermediacy of those friends.
The next mention of Mr. Fawkes’s name in the Turner sketch-books occurs
in connection with the large mezzotint of Turner’s oil painting of _The
Shipwreck_ (now in the National Gallery), which the engraver, Charles
Turner, executed and published in 1806-1807. The name of “Fawkes”
appears fifth in the list of subscribers to this plate, the first four
names being the “Wells Family,” Sir William Beechey, Mr. Swinburne, and
Mr. Henderson. Mr. Lister Parker’s name appears lower down in the list.
It was probably in London that Mr. Fawkes first met Turner, and the two
men had very likely known each other for some time before Turner was
induced to pay a visit to his friend’s home in Yorkshire. The first
clear piece of evidence of Turner being at Farnley is in connection with
Mr. Hawksworth Fawkes’s story of the origin of Turner’s large oil
painting (now in the National Gallery) of _Hannibal crossing the Alps_.
This picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1812, so the
incident described in the following words by Mr. Hawksworth Fawkes--he
was a boy at the time--must have taken place in 1810 or 1811: “One
stormy day at Farnley Turner called to me loudly from the doorway,
‘Hawkey! Hawkey! come here! come here! look at this thunderstorm. Isn’t
it grand?--isn’t it wonderful?--isn’t it sublime?’ All this time he was
making notes of its form and colour on the back of a letter. I proposed
some better drawing-block, but he said it did very well. He was
absorbed; he was entranced. There was the storm rolling and sweeping and
shafting out its lightning over the Yorkshire hills. Presently the storm
passed, and he finished.
‘There! Hawkey,’ said he, ‘in two years you will see this again, and
call it _Hannibal crossing the Alps_.’”
The earliest oil painting of Turner’s that Mr. Fawkes bought was the
beautiful sea-piece sometimes called _The Pilot Boat_, and sometimes
_Red Cap_. This was exhibited, in the “one-man show” Turner held in his
studio in 1809, under the title _Shoeburyness Fishermen hailing a
Whitstable Hoy_. There is a pen-and-ink sketch of this picture inside
the cover of the “Greenwich Sketch-Book” (cII, Turner Bequest), and on
the fly-leaf appears the following record of drawings made, or to be
made, for Mr. Fawkes:--
“4 Proofs of ‘Liber Studiorum.’
Mill. Sketch. Per Contra
1 Mill. Drawing. C. Draft.
2 Bardon Tower. Feb. 20. £100.”
3 Farnley.
4 Gordale.
5 Rocks.
7 Weathercote.
8 Geneva.
9 Bolton.
10 Thun.”
And on page 52 of the same book there occurs the following still longer
list:--
“Mill, finished.
Mill, sketch.
Bardon Tower.
Armutic Rock.
Farnley.
Gordale.
*The Strid.
Weathercote.
*Bolton Abbey, West.
Lac de Thun.
Lac de Geneve.
Ps. V. (_Probably the Swiss waterfall known as the “Pisse Vache."_)
*Bonneville.
Ingleboro.
Bolton.
Blair’s Hut.
Stourback. (_Evidently the Fall of the Staubbach._)
Mt. Blanc.
Vevey.
Grundelwald.
*Brintz.” (_The Lake of Brienz._)
* These are among the drawings selected for reproduction in the present
publication.
These entries were made, I am inclined to think, either in the year 1809
or 1810. It is easy to identify most of the drawings referred to in this
list, in spite of Turner’s rather arbitrary spelling. I can, however,
find no trace of the drawings described as _Armutic Rock_ and _Gordale_,
and I have never seen either the sketch or the finished drawing of the
_Mill_. I am not even sure what mill it can have been. It was probably
the one at Otley, which stands close to the lodge at the entrance to the
Farnley Hall grounds. A _View of Otley Mills, with the River Wharfe and
Mill Weir_, said to have been presented by Mr. Fawkes to the family of
its owner, was sold at Christie’s in June 1890, and bought by the famous
French dealer, M. Sedelmeyer. It was probably this drawing to which Mr.
Fawkes refers in the only fragment of a letter in his handwriting which
I have been able to discover among the Turner papers in the National
Gallery. The body of the letter has been destroyed, but the last two
paragraphs and the signature remain. This fragment says:--
“By to-morrow’s coach I shall send you a box containing two pheasants, a
brace of partridges, and a hare--which I trust you will receive safe and
good. We have tormented the poor animals very much lately and now we
must give them a holiday.
“Remember the Wharfdales--everybody is delighted with your Mill. I sit
for a long time before it every day.
“Ever very truly yrs.,
W. FAWKES.”
The “Wharfdales” are evidently the series of drawings of Wharfedale
scenery which Turner had in hand for Mr. Fawkes. The allusions to the
drawing of the _Mill_ give us a clue to the real bond of union between
the two men, viz., the patron’s sincere and unaffected delight in the
artist’s work.
Mr. Fawkes’s liberality as a buyer of Turner’s work is demonstrated by
some financial jottings made in one of his sketch-books (CXXII, Turner
Bequest), during the years 1809 and 1810. In one of these statements of
Turner’s assets Mr. Fawkes is debited with £500, in the other he is
entered as the artist’s debtor to the extent of £1,000.
In 1811 Turner threw himself enthusiastically into the project of
writing a long poem extolling the beauties and recounting the history of
all the chief places of interest on the southern coast of England. The
poem was to be illustrated by a series of engravings to be made from
water-colours specially painted by the artist for the work. The poem was
never completed, but Turner seems to have spent the greater part of the
summer of 1811 wandering along the coast from Christchurch, in
Hampshire, to Land’s End, in Cornwall, diligently making hundreds of
wonderfully delicate and accurate sketches, and with equal diligence,
and perhaps just as much enjoyment to himself, grinding out even a
greater number of lame and halting lines of the most indifferent verse.
He returned along the northern sides of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset,
sketching and rhapsodizing upon the whole coast from Penzance to the
Mendip Hills. This work and play must have kept him too busy to visit
Farnley that year.
Turner was back in Devonshire and Cornwall in 1813, but I believe he
managed to pay a rather lengthy visit to Farnley in 1812. The “Large
Farnley” and “Woodcock Shooting” Sketch-Books (CXXVIII and CXXIX, Turner
Bequest) seem to have been used on this occasion. The water-colour of
_Woodcock Shooting_ (painted for Sir H. Pilkington, and dated 1813), now
in the Wallace Collection, represents a winding road among tall spruce
firs, exactly like those which crown the rocky heights of the Otley
Chevin. In the latter of these two sketch-books there are several pencil
drawings of the fir trees on the slopes of the Chevin, with figures of
beaters and sportsmen carrying guns. The former sketch-book contains
drawings of Mr. Fawkes’s tent on the Farnley moors, with dogs, guns,
game, and ale barrels scattered in the foreground--notes from which the
water-colour of this subject in the Farnley Collection was painted.
Other pages of the same book contain beautiful drawings, some of them
partly finished in colour, of Farnley and Wharfedale from Caley Park.
Some loose leaves from this book were in the collection of the late Mr.
J. E. Taylor, who presented one of them to Sir Frank Short.
In 1814 Turner was, I believe, too busy sketching the southern coast
from Hastings to Margate, and his “Views in Sussex”, to have much time
for any lengthy visit to Farnley. But he was certainly there in 1815, as
a passage in a letter to the Rev. H. Scott Trimmer proves. The letter is
given in full in Monkhouse’s “Turner” (p. 90). It is dated “Tuesday,
Aug. 1, 1815.” In it Turner says: “After next Tuesday--if you have a
moment’s time to spare, a line will reach me at Farnley Hall, near
Otley, Yorkshire, and for some time, as Mr. Fawkes talks of keeping me
in the north by a trip to the Lakes, &c., until November.” The evidence
of the sketch-books suggests that this trip to the Lakes did not take
place.
On the 4th January, 1816, Mr. Walter Fawkes married his second wife, the
widow of the Hon. and Rev. Pierce Butler. Fortunately for us this lady
kept a diary, which has been carefully preserved at Farnley Hall, and
which Mr. F. H. Fawkes has very kindly placed at my disposal. In this
diary the names of all visitors were carefully noted, together with the
dates of their arrival and departure. The diary was continued to the
31st December, 1838, but Turner’s name does not occur in it after 1826.
But for the ten years between 1816 and 1826 this diary forms an
extremely valuable record of Turner’s movements. I propose, therefore,
with Mr. Fawkes’s kind permission, to publish, for the first time, all
the entries which have reference to the great artist.
The first entries of this kind are the following:--
“Wed. 17 July 1816. Left Farnley with Walter,
Maria, Amelia, Ayscough,
Richard, and Mr. Turner.
Met John Parker at Skipton,
where we slept and saw
Skipton Castle.
Thurs. 18 July Arrived at Browsholme.
Heavy rain.
Fri. 19 ” Rained all day. Sat in the
house. Late in the evening
walked a short way with
John Parker and Mr. Turner.
Sat. 20 July Walter drove me in curricle to
the Trough of Bolland.
Sun. 21 ” Went to Waddington Church
and after to see Mrs. Clarke.
Mon. 22 ” Went with the girls to the
Trough to see them fish.
Tues. 23 ” Heavy rain. Drove with Walter.
Obliged to take shelter
in a farmhouse. Walter
bought a print of the Prodigal
Son.
Wed. 24 ” Left Browsholme. Got to
Malham Village. Dreadful
rain.
Thurs. 25 ” Went to see Gordale Waterfall.
Returned home.
Heavy rain. Turner went
on a sketching tour.”
From the frequent references to the rain it is evident that the weather
was bad, and the lady does not seem to have enjoyed the excursion very
much. But the weather did not prevent Turner from making the sketches he
wanted. The sketch-book labelled by him “Yorkshire 2” (CXLV, Turner
Bequest) contains the drawings made on this occasion. It is an
ordinary-looking book, bound in boards, with brown leather back and
corners. The leaves, which number nearly two hundred, are 6 in. × 3¾ in.
size, but only a hundred and sixty of them have been drawn on. There are
sketches of Skipton Castle at both ends of the book, showing that Turner
was not at all particular about the order in which he made his sketches.
The drawings on pages 160 to 185 represent views at Skipton, Browsholme,
the Trough of Bolland (or Bowland, as it is generally written), and
Gordale Scar. But they are all rather hurried in character, which
corroborates Mrs. Fawkes’s account of the unfavourable nature of the
weather.
At the end of the book Turner has carefully made a list of the numbers
and dates of the banknotes he carried with him to meet the expenses of
his tour. He took two twenty-pound notes, four of ten pounds, five of
five, and four smaller ones, making £110 in all. There is also, on the
next page, a note of the expenses incurred on the journey from London to
Leeds:--
“Porterage 2 8
Fare to Leeds 2 2
Coachman 1
Dinner at Eaton 5 6
Coachman--Scrooby 1 6
ditto 1
Breakfast, Doncaster 2 3
Brandy and water, Grantham 1 6
Coachman and Guard 4 6
------------
3 2 11”
============
These items rather contradict Thornbury’s statements about the extreme
meanness and parsimony of the artist’s habits of travel. I may also
remark that the great painter’s exuberant imagination has led him to
overstate the total of his expenditure by the sum of one shilling.
Taking leave of his friends at Gordale, Turner set off by himself on a
sketching tour to collect material for the illustrations to Dr.
Whitaker’s projected “History of Richmondshire.” His sketch-book shows
that he struck over the hills to Kilnsey Crag and then crossed the wild
road from Wharfedale over the Stake Pass to Semmer Water. From Askrigg
he made his way to Richmond. He was there on the 31st of July, as we
find him on that date writing to Mr. Holworthy, saying that his “journey
is extended, rather than shortened, by an excursion into Lancashire.”
The weather was still bad, as we learn from a characteristic postscript
to this letter, which runs:--“Weather miserably wet. I shall be web-foot
like a drake--excepting the curled feather--but I must proceed
northward. Adieu.” The sketch-book shows he did “proceed northward” as
far as Barnard Castle, and then, turning into Westmorland, went south
into Lancashire, after passing through Appleby to Kirkby Lonsdale and
Heysham. Riding round Morecambe Bay, and probably crossing the sands at
low tide, he seems to have got back to Farnley by about the middle of
August.
The diary does not give the date of Turner’s arrival at Farnley, but the
shooting began on the 12th, when “all the gentlemen” went to the moors,
and on the 13th an unfortunate gun accident wounded one of the party,
Mr. Richard Hawksworth. On the 14th, the diary tells us that “Richard”
was “pretty well;” on the 15th the entry runs, “Richard pretty well
until evening. Sent for Hey” (the doctor), “who said he was dying.” On
the 16th “Poor Richard died at 5 o’clock in the morning.” This sad event
seems to have dispersed the house party, the entries on Saturday the
17th, and Monday 19th, recording the guests’ departures. Only “Turner
and John Parker remained and Miss Coates.” On the 4th September Turner
wrote from Farnley Hall to his correspondent, Mr. Holworthy, saying that
“having finished nearly what I proposed doing this season in Yorkshire,
I think I can do myself the pleasure of waiting upon Mr. Knight at
Langold within a fortnight.” This gentleman was evidently Mr. H. Gally
Knight, whose sketch of the Temple of Jupiter in the Island of Ægina had
formed the basis of Turner’s large oil painting of this subject which
was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1816. Langold is two miles beyond
Carlton, near Tickhill, Yorkshire. On the 11th September Turner writes
to the same correspondent, saying that he intends to leave Farnley on
“Sunday morning next” and that, if “Mr. Knight is not at Langold, I will
be at Belvoir on the Tuesday following.”
That Turner carried out at least the first part of his plan is proved by
the entry in the diary, “Mr. Turner went away,” under the date of
Sunday, 15th September.
The water-colours Turner made from the sketches taken during this year
are among the sunniest and happiest of his works. The lovely _Hornby
Castle from Tatham Church_ (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum), and
the _Crook of the Lune_ (in the Rev. W. Macgregor’s collection) are
perhaps the finest now existing of this series. But the happiness and
pure enjoyment of life that breathe through these drawings must have
been due to the artist’s memories and associations, rather than to his
actual experiences of the places represented, for the weather seems to
have been consistently bad during the whole of this summer and autumn.
In the letter to Mr. Holworthy referred to above, Turner wrote that his
present trip had been “a most confounded fagg.” Though he was on
horseback, he added, “the passage out of Teesdale leaves everything far
behind for difficulty--Bogged most compleatly, Horse and its Rider, and
nine hours making 11 miles.” And in another part of the same letter, he
wrote, “As to weather, there is nothing inviting, it must be confessed.
Rain, rain, rain, day after day. Italy deluged, Switzerland a wash-pot,
Neufchatel, Berne and Morat Lakes all in _one_--all chance of getting
over the Simplon or any of the passes _now_ vanished like the morning
mist.” So the writer had evidently nursed some project of going to Italy
in the latter part of this year, a project which he was not able to
carry out till two years later.
The year 1817 saw the addition of a very important series of fifty
drawings to Mr. Walter Fawkes’s already large collection. These were the
famous Rhine drawings. The date of their execution is given incorrectly
in Thornbury, but the newly-discovered evidence of the sketch-books and
an entry in Mrs. Fawkes’s diary enable us to correct Thornbury’s
inaccuracies. Thornbury says these drawings “were done at the prodigious
rate of three a day,” and in support of this statement he adds that
Turner was away only for a fortnight, and that “after landing at Hull he
came straight to Farnley, where, even before taking off his great-coat,
he produced the drawings, in a slovenly roll from his breast pocket; and
Mr. Fawkes bought the lot for some £500, doubtless to Turner’s delight,
for he could not bear that any series of his should be broken.” But a
kind of rough diary of Turner’s movements in the “Itinerary Rhine Tour
Sketch-Book” (CLIX, Turner Bequest) says that the artist “left London”
on Sunday, 10th August, was “off Margate” on Monday, 11th, and reached
Brussels Thursday evening, on the 14th. He spent Saturday, visiting the
Field of Waterloo, and, taking the diligence on Sunday, passed through
Liège and Aix-la-Chapelle, reaching Cologne on the 18th. On Tuesday he
walked to Bonn, and on the following day to Remagen. He was at Coblenz
on Thursday and Friday, the 21st and 22nd, at St. Goar on the next two
days, and at Mayence on the 25th and 26th. He returned to St. Goar on
the 27th, and, passing through Coblenz on the 28th, he reached Cologne
on the 29th, and left it the next day, returning through Aix and Liège.
He was at Antwerp on the 2nd and 3rd of September, and at Rotterdam on
the 4th and 5th, from whence he made his way to The Hague and Amsterdam.
The notes against the dates to the 15th September are too elliptical and
undecipherable to convey any information, but even if the artist did
take the boat from Holland to Hull (the most probable route of his
return) immediately on or after this date, it is clear that he did not
go straight from there to Farnley. He had some work to do in Durham
before he could go there--sketches to make of Gibside and Hylton Castle,
the seats of the Earl of Strathmore, and of Raby Castle, the seat of the
Earl of Darlington, to illustrate Surtees’ “History of the County of
Durham.” He had also a commission to paint a large oil picture of the
latter castle for its owner, a picture which duly appeared on the walls
of the Royal Academy in the following year. A passage in a letter to Mr.
Holworthy, written on the 21st November, 1817, says that “Lord
Strathmore call’d at Raby and took me away to the North,” thus keeping
him in Durham longer than he had expected. In this way Turner did not
reach Farnley till the middle of November. Mrs. Fawkes’s diary tells us
that she and her husband “went to Thorp Ash” on Thursday, 13th November,
and on the 15th the entry runs, “Heavy rain. Returned home. Found Mr.
Turner and Greaves here.” It is evident that Turner stayed there for
about a week, as the letter of the 21st November is dated from Farnley
Hall, but it is probable that he did not remain much longer, as he was
clearly anxious to get back home and to work, for he says in this
letter, “The season is far spent, the night of winter near at hand, and
Barry’s words are always ringing in my ears--‘Get home and light your
lamp.’”
The object of Thornbury’s statements about Turner being away only for a
fortnight, and going straight to Farnley after landing at Hull, is
evidently to corroborate his assertion that the fifty drawings were done
“at the prodigious rate of three a day.” No one who has studied these
beautiful drawings at all carefully could believe such a statement. But
the evidence of Turner’s own memoranda proves that he only spent twelve
days visiting the places on the Rhine which he has represented. He
occupied from the 18th of August to the 30th sketching between Cologne
and Mayence. So if we look at the matter from Thornbury’s point of view
we are entitled to say that the fifty water-colours were done, not at
the prodigious rate of three a day, but at the prodigious rate of more
than four a day. But such a conclusion clearly overlooks the important
difference between a sketch from nature and a finished drawing. In the
twelve days Turner spent on the Rhine he certainly made the sketches for
the fifty drawings Mr. Fawkes bought; and, in addition, he also made the
sketches--numbering something between a hundred and fifty and two
hundred--which we find in the three sketch-books, “Itinerary Rhine
Tour,” “Waterloo and Rhine,” and “The Rhine” (CLIX, CLX, CLXI, Turner
Bequest), preserved in the National Gallery. But it is evident the
Farnley water-colours were not painted from nature. They were elaborated
from pencil sketches somewhere between the end of August and the 13th
November, possibly at inns--for Turner could work anywhere and under any
conditions--or possibly when staying with Lord Darlington at Raby
Castle, or with Lord Strathmore at Hylton Castle or Gibside. Such
drawings as _Johannesberg_, _Sonneck and Baccharach_, _Mayence and
Cassel_, and the rest, are not hurried sketches from nature, but
carefully pondered and perfectly elaborated works of art. In some few
cases parts of the sky or distance may have been painted from nature,
but they all owe much of their charm and beauty to the consummately
skilful labour which the artist lavished upon them in the intervals of
travel, during the two months which elapsed between his departure from
Cologne and his arrival at Farnley Hall near the beginning of November.
When Turner wrote to Mr. Holworthy from Farnley Hall, “The season is far
spent, the night of winter near at hand, and Barry’s words are always
ringing in my ears--‘Get home and light your lamp,’” his mind was
evidently full of ideas of pictures he was anxious to carry out. The
subject-matter of three important oil paintings--the large view of _Raby
Castle_ for the Earl of Darlington, the serenely beautiful evening
effect of _The Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam becalmed_, which he
painted for Mr. Fawkes (and which is shown hanging over the fireplace,
in the position it still occupies to-day, in the water-colour of _The
Drawing-room at Farnley_, which was reproduced and published in the
March number of THE STUDIO), and the imaginative composition of _The
Field of Waterloo_, showing the ground
“Covered thick with other clay
Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent
Rider and horse, friend, foe, in one red burial blent.”
--was seething in his mind and crying out for definite embodiment. These
pictures were ready for exhibition at the Royal Academy in May 1818. In
June Mr. Fawkes and his wife were in London. Two of Mr. Fawkes’s sons by
his first marriage were at Eton, so we find the following entry in Mrs.
Fawkes’s diary on the 4th of June: “Went to Eton to see the boat-race.
Dined and slept at Salt Hill. Little Turner came with us.” That “little”
Turner’s thoughts were not taken up entirely with the boat-race and the
social pleasures of the visit is proved by the lovely sepia drawing of
_Windsor Castle from Salt Hill_, which was admirably engraved by Charles
Turner for the “Liber Studiorum,” though it was never published. Soon
after this visit to Eton Turner went to Scotland to make sketches to
illustrate “The Provincial Antiquities of Scotland,” for which Sir
Walter Scott (then plain Mr. Scott) had agreed to furnish the
letterpress. Scott would have preferred the employment of his friend the
Rev. John Thomson, of Duddingston, as the illustrator of this work, but
Lockhart and the publishers stood out for Turner. Scott finally gave way
and wrote that he “supposed he must acquiesce” in the selection of
Turner, “because he was all the fashion.” Turner’s subjects were chosen
for him and the work proved remarkably successful. Turner’s exquisite
water-colours were presented by the publishers to Sir Walter Scott, who
had them all framed together (in a very unsuitable way, it must be
confessed) and kept them hung in his study at Abbotsford until his
death.
There is no mention in the diary of any visit of Turner to Farnley Hall
in 1818, but it is probable that he called there on his way back from
Scotland. The water-colour of _A First Rater taking in Stores_, which is
said to have been painted at Farnley Hall, is dated 1818. The
water-colour drawing of _The Drawing-room at Farnley_, to which I have
already referred, must also have been painted that year, as the picture
of _Dort_ could not have been in its place before then, and the drawing
was included in the exhibition of Turner’s works which Mr. Fawkes held
in April 1819.
To appreciate fully the importance of this exhibition it will be
necessary for us to glance for a moment at the conditions of artistic
patronage in this country during the earlier years of the nineteenth
century. As we had no National Gallery then, opportunities for becoming
familiar with the works of the great European painters of the past were
extremely limited. With a view to educating the taste of the public,
some of the artists made the suggestion that the nobility and gentry,
who owned collections of works by the old masters, should admit the
public to their galleries or houses on a certain day in each week during
the fashionable season. The Marquess of Stafford and Earl Grosvenor
acted upon this suggestion. But after a time complaints were made that
the taste for the old masters was prejudicial to the claims for
recognition of the living native artists of the day. To redress the
balance Lord de Tabley, who had formed a fine collection of exclusively
British paintings, decided to throw open his gallery to the public. Many
of his friends tried to dissuade him from doing this, as they thought
that the British School could not emerge with credit from the inevitable
comparisons which would be made with the more famous Schools of the
Continent. But he invited and allowed the public to visit his gallery on
one day in the week during the season of 1818. His experiment was so
successful that it was repeated the following year. William Carey, a
dealer who had assisted Lord de Tabley in forming his collection, tells
us that “the splendour of the British School produced a favourable
conviction on the minds of foreign visitors. The effect was
indescribable. It increased on each year of the exhibition, and the
periodical press, in bearing testimony to the general enthusiasm which
seized all the upper classes, rapidly spread the fame of the British
School through the Empire” (“Some Memoirs of the Patronage and Progress
of the Fine Arts,” &c., published in 1826). The success of Lord de
Tabley’s bold experiment seems to have suggested to Mr. Walter Fawkes
the idea of admitting the public to see the large collection of English
water-colours he had formed. The writer referred to above tells us that
he “had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Fawkes mention his intended
exhibition to a small circle of amateurs, with a doubt whether the
public would approve of paintings in water-colours without any pictures
in oil. Some gentlemen replied hesitatingly; but the approbation of His
Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, who was present, determined the
question. Lord de Tabley gave the plan his instant and warm concurrence.
Mr. Thomas Lister Parker, of Browsholme Hall, was equally prompt in his
assent. The drawings were first displayed in an evening when the
apartments were judicially illuminated. Mr. Fawkes issued cards of
invitation for the private view only, and, notwithstanding that he was
particularly select, the spacious suite of rooms was too small to
receive the company. The effect was very striking. It was generally
remarked that Grosvenor Place never before beheld such a blaze of beauty
of fashion, or such a splendid assemblage of distinguished public
characters, as on that evening, and on the subsequent days of
exhibition.”
The first and second rooms of the suite were filled with drawings by De
Wint, J. C. Ibbetson, T. Heaphy, Glover, Havell, Robson, Hills, Prout,
Atkinson, and Warwick Smith. The principal apartment, the largest in
size and the last to be entered, was hung entirely with drawings by
Turner. I will not venture to quote Carey’s rhapsodical description of
these drawings. It is every whit as rapturous and enthusiastic as any of
the purple patches penned by “A Graduate of Oxford” some fourteen or
fifteen years later, but it has nothing of Ruskin’s eloquence or
felicity of literary expression. Still the following remarks, from
Carey’s useful book, are, I think, worth quoting: “Turner the enchanter,
whose magic pencil had created the chief wonders of this temple, was
frequently there. Nature, in endowing his mind, appears to have been
indifferent to his person; but his brow is a page on which the traits of
his high calling are stamped in capital letters, and his dark eyes
sparkle with the fires of inspiration. He generally came alone; and
while he leaned on the centre table in the great room, or slowly worked
his rough way through the mass, he attracted every eye in the brilliant
crowd, and seemed to me like a victorious Roman General, the principal
figure in his own triumph. Perhaps no British artist ever retired from
an exhibition of his works, with so much reason for unmixed
satisfaction, or more genuine proofs of well-deserved admiration from
the public.” Carey adds, “It is more than seven years since I saw this
extraordinary exhibition; and even now the remembrance affects me....”
And after a page or two of rather turgid bombast he winds up with the
naïve remark, “I own I am an enthusiastic worshipper of Turner’s
genius.”
The references to Turner in Mrs. Fawkes’s diary for this time are
extremely limited. We learn from it that the family came to the house in
Grosvenor Place in March. On Sunday, 7th March, the entry runs: “Went
with girls to Belgrave Chapel. Mr. Parker, Alston, Turner, and Mr.
Miller dined with us.” The entry on Tuesday, 13th April, is: “Very wet
day, Gallery opened in Grosvenor Place. 1st day.” During the next few
weeks a number of dinner parties are recorded, but no names of the
guests are mentioned. We may take it for granted that Turner was
frequently present on these occasions.
After the exhibition Mr. Fawkes had a catalogue published of the
drawings included in the show. The catalogue was dedicated “To J. M. W.
Turner, Esq., R.A., P.P.,” in the following graceful letter:--
“My dear Sir,
“The unbought and spontaneous expression of the public opinion
respecting my collection of water-colour drawings decidedly points
out to whom this little catalogue should be inscribed. To you,
therefore, I dedicate it: first, as an act of duty, and secondly,
as an Offering of Friendship: for be assured I never can look at it
without intensely feeling the delight I have experienced during the
greater part of my life from the exercise of your talent, and the
pleasure of your society.
“That you may year after year reap an accession of fame and fortune
is the anxious wish of
“Your sincere friend,
W. FAWKES.”
“London, June, 1819.
The family copy of this catalogue was illustrated with a frontispiece
and two water-colours by Turner, one a view of _London from the Windows
of 45, Grosvenor Place_, the other a view of the _Drawing-room of 45,
Grosvenor Place_.
To understand properly the importance of this exhibition to Turner’s
reputation as a water-colour painter, we must bear in mind that since
his election as a member of the Royal Academy he had been known to the
public primarily as an oil painter; and he had held aloof from the
newly-established Water-Colour Society, and had, therefore, no regular
opportunities for submitting his water-colour drawings to the public.
Mr. Fawkes’s friendly exhibition, held under the most fortunate social
conditions, firmly established Turner’s position as the foremost
water-colour painter of his time, and enabled him to produce, during the
next twenty years, those marvellous series of drawings which are so
eagerly sought after by collectors of the present day, and so warmly
appreciated and enjoyed by all who care for the higher achievements of
the Fine Arts.
In the summer of 1819 Turner paid his first visit to Italy. He went from
Calais to Paris, followed the usual coach route to Turin, and, having
explored the north Italian lakes, he reached Venice by way of Milan and
Brescia. He must have spent some time in Venice to judge from the large
number of sketches he made there. Making his way along the coast of the
Adriatic he turned inland at Ancona, and following the high post road
through Recanati and Macerata, entered the Via Flaminia at Foligno, and
saw Rome for the first time, probably some time in September or October.
From Rome he explored Frascati and Tivoli, and made a tour to Naples,
Pompeii and Herculaneum. He left Rome in December, visited Florence, and
re-crossed the Alps on the 24th January 1820. He returned through
Piedmont and France, and we find him dining at Grosvenor Place with the
Fawkses on Saturday, 12th February. During the next few months he must
have been frequently in the society of his friends, as his name
constantly recurs in the entries of Mrs. Fawkes’s diary. The following
extracts will speak for themselves:--
“Monday, 14th Feb., 1820. Went a large party to
see the Panorama of
Lausanne. Turner
and Mr. Lomax dined
with us.
Sunday, 27th Feb. B. King, E. Parker,
Turner, Mr. Lomax
and W. Beaumont
dined with us.
Sunday, 9th April. Drove out with Walter
to Whitly and Turner’s
Garden. E. Parker
dined with us.
Sunday, 30th April. Mr. Swinburne, Parker,
Turner dined with us.
Sunday, 7th May. Walter out in Phaeton.
Mr. Swinburne, Parker,
Turner and Alston
and Mills dined with
us.
Sunday, 21st May. Lord Belmore came to
pay a visit. Maria and
I went to Warwick St.
Chapel. Turner and
Swinburne dined with
us.
Monday, 5th June. Walter, two of the girls,
and I went to Salt Hill.
Saw the Boat Race.
Young Knight fell
from his horse. Broke
his arm. Fine day.
Wet afternoon. Mr.
Swinburne and Turner.
Tuesday, 4th July. To Greenwich. Traceys,
Mr. and Mrs. Alston,
Turner, Sir Francis D.
Kinnaird. All the party
drank tea in Grosvenor
Place. Fine day, not
hot.”
Turner’s visit to Italy did not have a very beneficial effect upon his
art. He came back with a mass of material and then seems to have been
puzzled to know what to do with it all. The _Bay of Baiæ_, the first
important oil painting which he produced after this visit, is overloaded
with detail, and the design possesses no organic unity. The best
artistic results of the journey were a few water-colours painted for Mr.
Fawkes. The _Rialto, Venice_, a brilliant drawing, though overcrowded
with facts, is interesting as Turner’s first Venetian picture done from
his own sketches--the drawing of the same subject engraved in Hakewill’s
“Italy” having been made from camera-obscura tracings furnished by
Hakewill. The _Interior of St. Peter’s, Rome_, is a wonderful drawing,
remarkable for the sense of height and space obtained by taking
deliberate liberties with the laws of perspective. The view of _The
Colosseum, Rome_, is exquisite in colour and effect. The best inspired
of all the drawings produced this year (1820) is, however, _The Passage
of Mont Cenis_, in which the contrast between the frightened passengers
in the diligence, with its wildly plunging horses, and the gleaming
peaks of the frozen mountains, is emphasized with extraordinary skill
and eloquence.
These drawings practically completed the Farnley Hall collection.
Turner’s friendship with Mr. Fawkes continued unabated till the latter’s
death in 1825, but the only drawings added to the collection after 1820
are interesting rather on private and personal grounds than for their
artistic importance. They are mere records of relics of the Civil War
preserved at Farnley, or vignette illustrations, the poetical or
historical compilations with which members of the Fawkes family amused
their leisure.
I do not think I can better conclude this account of Turner’s personal
relations with Mr. Walter Fawkes than by placing on record the remaining
entries in Mrs. Fawkes’s diary in which the artist is either directly or
indirectly referred to.
In 1821 the family came to Mr. Fawkes’s London house on Wednesday, 21st
March, “at 4 o’clock.” The next day, Thursday, “Turner and Parker dined
with us.” On Thursday, 21st June, the entry runs: “Went to Eton with
Walter, the girls, Mr. Swinburne and Turner.” The family left London on
23rd July, and Turner does not seem to have seen them till he went up to
Farnley to spend Christmas with them. “Mr. Turner came” is entered
against Sunday, 23rd December, but the date of his departure is not
given.
In 1822 the family arrived at Grosvenor Place on 10th April. On Sunday,
the 14th, “Mr. Alston, Turner and G. Wentworth dined with us.” The 20th
of June was a great day for the family. On that day Miss Anne Fawkes,
the youngest of Mr. Fawkes’s daughters by his first marriage, was
married to Mr. Godfrey Wentworth, of Woolley Park, co. York. There were
twenty-three guests present at the dinner given in honour of this event,
among them several Lords and Ladies and “Mr. Turner.” The entry in the
diary on this day is brief but eloquent. It runs: “Anne and Godfrey
married. A very long day. Had a large party to dinner. All tipsey.”
Turner’s name does not appear in the diary during the whole of 1823, nor
in 1824 till the end of the year, when he went to Farnley for nearly a
month. The following entries speak for themselves:--
“Friday, 19 Nov. 1824. Turner came.
Tuesday, 14 Dec. ” Mr. Turner went away.
Monday, 3 Jan. 1825. Left Farnley for Baker
Street.
Thursday, 6 ” ” Arrived in London.
Saturday, 8 ” ” Mr. Parker and Turner
came to dinner.
Sunday, 9 ” ” Foggy, nasty day. Mr.
Turner dined with us.
Sunday, 16 ” ” Mr. Turner dined with
us.
Sunday, 30 ” ” Walked to Hanover
Square to see the
Wentworths. Mr.
Turner dined with us.
Monday, 31 ” ” Mr. Sapio came to teach
Eliza. Hawksworth
went to Windsor.
Turner and Mr.
Woodhouse dined
with us. H.’s birthday.
Sunday, 6 Feb. ” Turner dined with us.
Sunday, 20 ” ” Mr. Lister, Turner and
Dr. Bree dined.
Wednesday, 2 March ” Walter’s birthday.
Charles and Fanny
Brandling, Mr. Creevy,
Turner, Mr. Alston
and Rowland
dined with us.
Sunday, 13 March, 1825. Mr. Parker and Mr.
Turner dined with us
and John Ibbetson
and Mr. Wharton.
Sunday, 3 April ” Turner, Anne and
Godfrey dined with
us. * * * Went to
Baker Street Chapel
with Fanny and Eliza.
Wednesday, 6 ” ” Hawksworth and
Eliza married at St.
George’s by the A.
bishop of York. We
had a large dinner
party and the Infant
Lyra in the evening.
Sunday, 17 ” ” Fanny B. and Hawkey
called. Drove with
Fanny Brandling to
Mr. Clarke’s house.
His first visit. T.
Parker and Turner
dined with us.
Friday, 22 ” ” Tom Parker and Mr.
Turner dined with us.
A ball at Mrs. Stanhope’s.
Did not go.
Sunday, 1 May, 1825. Ill. Mr. Lister, C.
Brandling, Edward
Parker and Mr. Turner
dined with us.
Sunday, 15 ” ” Mr. Wodehouse and
Turner dined with us.
Ayscough came from
Oxford.
Friday, 3 June ” Walter was this evening
condemned to his
bed. He kissed me
and cried bitterly.
Came back several
times to kiss and said
he knew he never
more should get out
of it. I passed a
wretched night.
Sunday, 14 Aug. ” Mr. Alston and Turner
dined.
Saturday, 27 ” ” Turner dined in Baker
Street. Said he was
going next morning
to the Hague.”
This entry enables us to date with certainty the “Holland Sketch-Book”
(CCXIV) in the National Gallery. Mr. Walter Fawkes died on the 25th of
October of this year, probably before Turner got back to London from his
tour in Holland.
Mrs. Fawkes spent a few days in London in May the following year, and
Turner dined with her on two occasions, on Tuesday the 2nd and Sunday
the 7th of May. The diary was continued till 31st December, 1838, but I
can find no further mention in it of Turner’s name.
Thornbury says, “Turner was so sensitive that he could never make up his
mind to visit Farnley after his old friend’s death.” And we have
Ruskin’s testimony that Turner could never speak of the Wharfe, about
whose shores the shadows of old thoughts and long-lost delights hung
like morning mist, but his voice faltered.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: TURNER’S RELATIONS WITH MR. H. FAWKES]
On the death of Mr. Walter Fawkes Farnley Hall passed to his son, Mr.
Francis Hawksworth Fawkes. He was a boy when Turner first became
friendly with the family. He had romped, walked, shot with Turner, and
had sat at his elbow while he was making many of the wonderful drawings
in the Farnley Collection. No doubt young Hawksworth was one of the
party in the carriage which Turner insisted upon driving tandem from the
shooting tent on the Farnley moors, and which he managed to capsize
“amid shouts of good-humoured laughter"--an exploit which earned the
artist the nickname of “Over-Turner.” It was to young “Hawkey” that
Turner called one day in 1810, when he stood on the terrace at Farnley
watching the storm rolling and shafting out its lightning over the
Wharfedale hills--the storm effect he was to paint in his picture of
_Hannibal Crossing the Alps_. The same boy sat watching him for three
hours as he sat one morning between breakfast and lunch-time making the
beautiful drawing of _A First-Rater taking in Stores_, the artist all
the time “working like a madman” and “tearing up the sea with the
eagle-claw of a thumbnail.” It was young Hawksworth who induced his
father to buy the large oil painting of _Dort_ from the exhibition of
1818.
After Turner’s death, Mr. Hawksworth Fawkes furnished Thornbury with the
following account of his connection with the great artist. “When Turner
was so much here (at Farnley) in my father’s lifetime, I was but a boy,
and not of an age to appreciate or interest myself in the workings of
his mind or pencil. My recollection of him in those days refers to the
fun, frolic, and shooting we enjoyed together, and which, whatever may
be said by others of his temper and disposition, have proved to me that
he was, in his hours of distraction from his professional labours, as
kindly-minded a man and as capable of enjoyment and fun of all kinds as
any that I ever knew.
“Though often invited, Turner never came here after my father’s death;
and, as I have seldom gone to London, our meetings since I had learnt
his value had been few and far between: but up to the last time that I
saw him, about a year before his death, he was always the same to me
that I had known him in my boyhood, always addressed me by my boy name,
and seemed ever anxious to express in his kindness to me his attachment
to my father, and still glowing recollections of his ‘auld lang syne’
here.”