Christopher Le Brun RA, artist
Christopher Le Brun RA. is an artist whose work encompasses painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art (1970-74) and at Chelsea School of Art (1974-5). In 1987 he received the DAAD award from the German government, living and working in Berlin for a year. He was a trustee of the Tate from 1990-1995 and the National Gallery from 1996-2003. He was the Royal Academy's first Professor of Drawing from 2000-2002. He is currently a trustee of the Prince’s Drawing School.
View this artist in the Tate Collection
from Fonthill Sketchbook [Finberg XLVII], Cassiobury: The House Seen in the Distance from the West, across the Park 1804-5
![Turner, from Fonthill Sketchbook [Finberg XLVII], Cassiobury: The House Seen in the Distance from the West, across the Park 1804-5](/britain/exhibitions/drawingfromturner/works/turner/D02235.jpg)
I simply tried to copy this drawing. I suspect Turner was searching for the composition, as the likely subject, the house, is faint and remote.
I found the drawing remarkable for its evenness of attention. Hardly any part is favoured or exaggerated, everything is understated. The result seems like a faithful topography, calm and unfussed, with a steady rhythm. You sense that his great power as a picture maker is present but not called on.
A convincing urgency or rhythm, of course, is the last thing achievable in a copy, since where Turner’s eye was flooded with daylight and colour, I have only his time-worn lines on paper for a model.
The lesson of the copy? Perhaps that the pressure to make work decisively aesthetic should occasionally be resisted - for truth’s sake.