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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Farnley Hall and Yorkshire c.1808-24 > Farnley Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Interior of the Library, Farnley Hall 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Interior of the Library, Farnley Hall’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Recto:
The Interior of the Library, Farnley Hall 1818
D12022
Turner Bequest CLIII 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 185 mm
Watermaked ‘AL[LEE] | [ 18[13]’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil with colour notes and measurements; ‘25’ [?triglyphs to the left cornice], ‘27’ [?triglyphs to the cornice of the fireplace wall]; ‘Red seats’, ‘Red and Black’ [carpet]; ‘Red’ [twice, for the wall fabric]; ‘Velvet Black ...’ [on square seat and cushions before the fireplace
Stamped in black ‘CLIII 16’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is the right half of a double-page spread continued from D12021; Turner Bequest CLIII 15a, opposite, and extended further right on Tate D12023; Turner Bequest CLIII 17, following, recording the north, east and south walls of the Georgian library at Farnley Hall, added to the house by the architect John Carr of York. In this, the main part of the sketch, we see the door into the drawing room on the left, with a glimpse of a harp in the next room. Over the chimneypiece, flanked by bookcases framed with drapery, is Turner’s painting Shoeburyness Fishermen hailing a Whitstable Hoy (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa)1 bought by Walter Fawkes after its exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1809. It is colloquially known as the ‘Red Cap’ on account of one of the fishermen holding such a garment aloft. The detail was no doubt added to harmonise the painting with the predominant colour scheme of the room. The red walls, upholstery and black and red carpet are noted in Turner’s inscriptions. No finished watercolour of this composition is recorded but an entry in the list on Tate D12013; Turner Bequest CLIII 11a of the present sketchbook ‘18 Library’, indicates at least the intention to produce something.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.63 no.85 (pl.95).
Verso:
Blank

David Hill
June 2009

Revised by David Blayney Brown
June 2013

How to cite

David Hill, ‘The Interior of the Library, Farnley Hall 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2009, revised by David Blayney Brown, June 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-interior-of-the-library-farnley-hall-r1146655, accessed 23 November 2024.