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

This is one of three named views of Whitewell, Lancashire, from this sketchbook; the others are D07521 and D07522; Turner Bequest CIX 9, 10. Turner’s return route from his visits to Cockermouth, Lowther Castle and the Whitehaven area lay through the Forest of Bowland. The Cockermouth sketchbook used on the same trip gives his itinerary thus; ‘Tuesday E[gremont], Ulv[erston] | Wednesday. Whitewell | Thursday Manchester’. However, his drawings suggest that he allowed more time. Turner had previously visited Whitewell and Browsholme Hall by the nearby hamlet of Cow Ark in 1799; if not at the Hall, the estate of his patron Thomas Lister Parker, he must have stayed at the inn (formerly the manor) at Whitewell, which with the adjacent chapel, now St Michael’s Church, is present in his drawings.

Here, the view is from the bank of the Hodder, above the stepping stones. The wooded slope of New Laund Hill rises to the left and the chapel and inn are visible through the trees on the right. The river is good for fishing, which Turner enjoyed.

For the recto see D07519; Turner Bequest CIX 8.