J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

This sketch is a less detailed, single-page repetition of most of the two-page view on folio 9 verso and the recto of the present leaf (D12267, D12268; CLVI 5a–6). Old Hollingside, the Column of British Liberty and the house at Gibside run from left to right towards the south-west above the far side of the broad valley. Turner has moved a little to the south-east so that High Dam, just to the right of centre, is now aligned below the column and house (rather than to their left, as in the other sketch), and the reach of the Derwent running north-west towards Turner’s viewpoint falls outside the right-hand edge of the composition in this version. Today, the nine-arched viaduct on the redundant Derwent Valley Railway crosses the river in Turner’s line of sight below the house.

Further studies of Gibside and the surrounding landscape are on folios 6 verso to 9 recto, 11 recto and 11 verso (D40723, D12265, D40724, D12270, D12271, D12266, D12272, D12273; CLVI 3 verso–4, [4 verso]–7, 7a, 5, 8, 8a). See the introduction to the tour and the entry for folio 6 verso (D40723) for more on the history of the house and estate.

Technical notes:

Ruskin’s inscription, corresponding to his probable number ‘554 A’ (now partly obscured) on folio 9 recto (D12266; CLVI 5), relates the two halves of the double-page drawing mentioned at the beginning of this entry. There are pairs of rough pencil strokes running into the gutter towards the top and bottom of the right-hand side. These also appear at the corresponding points on folio 9 recto, and date from the time the leaves were detached, perhaps as indications as to where they should be joined to form a continuous sheet for display.