Explorations in the footsteps of Turner, Cotman, Ruskin and others with Professor David Hill
This article returns to a subject briefly visited in an article of 10 April 2016 in which I discussed a Turner watercolour of Ben Arthur from near Arrochar. I had not time then to investigate the subject in any detail, but finally last week managed to visit the exact spot. Regular readers will know that … Continue reading Turner and Scotland #2: Loch Lomond from Colonel Lascelles’ monument, 1801
Sometimes Sublime Sights appear completely out of the blue. The well-known scholar Timothy Wilcox recently sent me a photograph of the watercolour reproduced below. It forms part of an exceptional private collection which Tim is cataloguing for publication in due course. It appears to have been acquired as a Turner by an ancestor of the … Continue reading A newly-identified Val d’Aosta subject by Turner
2018 brings an especially Sublime sighting. On 30 January, Christie's, New York offers a superb late Turner watercolour of ‘The Lake of Lucerne from Brunnen, with a Steamer’. This is being sold by a private American collector, and was last seen in Britain when it was sold by Christie’s in London in 1976. The sale … Continue reading Turner at Brunnen, Lake Lucerne
This article offers a new identification for a watercolour exhibited in the recent ‘Turner et la Couleur’ exhibition at the Hotel de Caumont, Aix en Provence 4 May – 18 September 2016 and afterwards in ‘J M W Turner: Adventures in Colour’ at Turner Contemporary, Margate, 8 October 2016 – 8 January 2017. Its title … Continue reading J.M.W.Turner: Ehrenbreitstein from Neuendorf
One of the Turner highlights of 2016 was Ian Warrell’s splendid exhibition of ‘Turner et la Couleur’ which showed at the Hotel de Caumont, Centre d’Art at Aix en Provence 4 May to 18 September, and then as J M W Turner: Adventures in Colour’ [and STILL, FOR ONE MORE WEEK ONLY] at Turner Contemporary, … Continue reading Update: Turner and Sisteron
Since completing part #6 of the SublimeSites.co series on Turner and Heidelberg, I have discovered a potential literary source for the subject of the Tate oil painting. In part #6, I suggested that the composition of the painting was based on a sketch in the 'Mountain Fortress' sketchbook in the Turner Bequest at the Tate … Continue reading Update: Turner and Heidelberg – a newly identified source for the Tate painting
Not all my Turnering goes according to plan. This is an interim report on a new identification for a watercolour at the British Museum. Currently called ‘Mountain study, a view in north Wales (?)’ this can now be confirmed instead as a view of Ben Arthur from the entrance to Glen Croe above Ardgartan. On … Continue reading Turner and Scotland #1: Ben Arthur from near Ardgartan
This article visits the famous ‘Ruskin’s View’ at Kirkby Lonsdale in Cumbria. It is so christened after a particularly purple description of the scenery by Ruskin. Hardly anyone, however, has ever considered his commentary in full. In what follows we will retrace Ruskin’s footsteps and discover that he said rather more than is generally admitted. … Continue reading Kirkby Lonsdale: What Ruskin really said.
On 10 May 2015, I posted a short article identifying one of the Cotman sketches at Leeds Art Gallery as a memorandum of a painting by Turner, ‘Helvoetsluis’, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832. It was touching to discover some new documentation of Cotman’s admiration for Turner. Then, just recently, a group of seven … Continue reading Cotman and Turner’s ‘Van Tromp’: A newly identified study of 1832
REVISED 14 April 2016 (DH) towards end, to discuss recently discovered poetic source This post concludes the essay begun on 19 October 2015 and continued on 18, 20 and 23 November 2015 and 17 January 2016. In part #1, I followed in the footsteps of Turner’s comprehensive exploration of Heidelberg in 1833. In part #2, … Continue reading In Turner’s Footsteps at Heidelberg: Part 6
Sublime Sites 