Explorations in the footsteps of Turner, Cotman, Ruskin and others with Professor David Hill
Watercolour vignette, 135 x 105 mm Private Collection Notes: This is a small, highly-wrought studio watercolour vignette, of a busy street scene with a cathedral in the background bathed in light, whilst a stage coach stops in the centre of a street amidst a throng of figures. DH scan from Sotheby's 1983 This is the … Continue reading Abbeville: St Vulfran from the Market Square, c.1834
Watercolour vignette on paper, image 5 1/4 x 4 ins, in border 7 x 4 5/8 ins on sheet 8 3/4 x 7 1/2 ins, 223 x 191 mm Inscribed by Turner in watercolour, above subject; 'Border Minstrelsey/ Vol, ' and below; 'Smailholme Tower' Private Collection Turner catalogues: Wilton 1071; tdb1192 Scanned by DH from … Continue reading Smailholm Tower, Roxburghshire [Smailholme, Smallholm], c.1832
Watercolour on paper, 101 x 152 mm Untraced Turner Catalogues: Wilton 1090; tdb1210 Photograph by David Hill This is a small, highly-finished watercolour showing a lake and mountain. A string of cattle stands in the water in the foreground and the bank recedes at the right to the distant mountain. The watercolour is currently untraced … Continue reading Skiddaw from the southern end of Derwentwater, c.1832
Watercolour vignette on paper, 280 x 215 mm Private Collection Turner Catalogues: Wilton 1091; tdb1211 Image courtesy of Bonham's This is a small, highly-finished watercolour vignette showing a tree-circled clearing with, in the centre, a monolith with a tree apparently growing from it. In the distance left is the misty silhouette of a castle on … Continue reading Mayburgh, with Penrith Castle and Beacon [sometimes Mayborough or King Arthur’s Round Table], c.1832
Watercolour vignette on paper, 87 x 152 mm Private Collection Turner Catalogues: Wilton 1092; tdb1212 Image courtesy of Christie's This is a small, highly-finished watercolour showing an extensive landscape with a castle on a sunlit eminence centre left, overlooking a broad river and many-arched bridge to the right. A town with a tower and spire … Continue reading Berwick upon Tweed, c.1832
Watercolour vignette on paper, 115 x 147 mm Abbotsford, The Home of Sir Walter Scott Turner Catalogues: Wilton 1093; tdb1213 Image courtesy of the Art Fund This is a small, highly-finished watercolour vignette showing an extensive baronial house overlooking a river and backed by rounded hills. The time of day is evening and a crescent … Continue reading Abbotsford, c.1832
Between c.1793 and c.1794 Turner made fifteen watercolours for engraving in 'The Copper-Plate Magazine' published in parts by Harrison & Co of Paternoster Row, London in partnership with the engraver John Walker. Each part consisted of two copper-plate engravings, together with a page of descriptive and historical text. The first part of the project was … Continue reading Introduction: The Copper-Plate Magazine
Pencil and watercolour on paper, 216 x 281 mm, 8 1/2 x 11 ins Inscribed: Lower right, in a distinctive script, 'Turner'. USA, Massachusetts, Williamstown, Sterling and Francine Clark Institute Turner catalogues: Wilton no.87; tdb237 This is a medium-sized studio watercolour depicting two single-masted seagoing cabin vessels moored in the centre foreground, near some trees … Continue reading Rochester, seen across the River Medway, c.1793
Coronavirus restrictions have forced many of us to find imaginative room in small things, but last week I received a pleasant reminder of previous excursions to sublimity on the grand scale. The British Art specialists Lowell Libson and Jonny Harker sent me a link to their new online exhibition ‘Good Prospects’. The selection includes a … Continue reading Aiguilles of Mont Blanc: A rediscovered watercolour by John Ruskin
I admitted in my original article on David Lucas’s progress proofs for Constable's 'A Summerland' that my attempt to record all of the impressions for this composition was doomed to amendment. I hardly suspected that it would require amending quite so frequently. Here is yet another proof; the third to appear this year. I haven’t … Continue reading Update: Another Constable ‘Summerland’ proof!
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