JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER RA (1775-1851) Hampton Court, ...

Hammer

£96,000

JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER RA (1775-1851)
Hampton Court, Herefordshire, watercolour on paper, laid down on backing card, unframed, 12 3/4 x 17 in

Painted c.1796

Provenance: Viscount Malden;

Passed by sale of Hampton Court (1812) as part of the contents to Richard Arkwright (the younger);

By inheritance in 1843 to John Arkwright; in 1858 to John H. Arkwright; in 1905 to John S Arkwright (all at Hampton Court)

Transferred by John S. Arkwright (with other contents) to Kinsham Court, Herefordshire 1911-1912; by inheritance in 1954 to David Arkwright; thence by further descent within the family

Literature: The Life and Work of J.M.W.Turner, by Andrew Wilton, Academy Editions, 1979 no 98. p 312 (where listed as size unknown, provenance and whereabouts unknown)

Engraved: By John Walker for Walker’s Copper-Plate Magazine, 1st September,1797

This recently re-discovered watercolour depicts a view towards Hampton Court from the south east, looking across the River Lugg. A preparatory drawing for this view of the house can be seen in Turner’s South Wales Sketchbook in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Turner's South Wales sketchbook (T.B.xxxvi) in use in 1795 records (p5) ' among 'other order’d drawings’ five' for Viscount Malden, Hampton Court in Herefordshire'. The titles are ‘Cascade’, ‘Oak’, ’Chaple (sic)’, ’N. Front’ and ’S. Front’.

Turner’s artistic activities at Hampton Court in the mid 1790’s were recalled many years later by the author John Britton (1731-1857) in his book on Cassiobury, (The History and Description, with Graphic Illustrations, of Cassiobury Park, Hertfordshire, the seat of the Earl of Essex, London 1837). ‘' Nearly forty years have elapsed since the author of this work visited the Earl of Essex, at Hampton Court in Herefordshire, when the fascinating pencil of Turner was employed in delineating some of the picturesque features of that fine old castellated mansion with its grand forest accompaniments’’. Viscount Malden inherited Hampton Court in 1781. He soon set about alterations to the house and gardens. The watercolour of the Herefordshire artist James Wathen (1751-1828), (Hereford Libraries) date the building works to the South Front with some precision. One of Wathen’s works dated 1791 shows Malden’s very large Glass House at the south west Corner, and that south west corner of the house as altered by his great-grandfather Thomas Coningsby. A second watercolour by Wathen dated 1795 depicts the south front with new round towers. Malden must therefore have undertaken the building work to the south front of the house between 1791 and 1795. The Minster watercolour depicting the South Front as it does after alteration confirms a dating to circa 1796. The completed building works may indeed have been a factor in Viscount Malden asking Turner to come and paint his home. The watercolour belongs stylistically with the artist’s rapidly developing technique in the mid 1790s and that striking process may have been one of the things that indeed attracted Malden to the artist.

The Minster watercolour must belong to the set of views by Turner of Hampton Court which includes Wilton (nos 182-186, ibid.), and forms part of Malden’s extensive patronage of the young Turner. The series of views was partially replicated a decade later at the behest of Sir Richard Colt Hoare and the Minster watercolour can also be compared with Turner’s later 1806 view of Hampton Court from the South East (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection) that was also based on drawings made by Turner in 1795.

Andrew Wilton has kindly confirmed that the Minster watercolour is indeed the work listed as no.98 in his 1979 catalogue raisonne on 'The Life and Work of J.M.W.Turner’. We are also grateful to Catherine Beale for her guidance on the history of the Arkwright Family and of Hampton Court.