Joseph Mallord William Turner The Valley of the Wharfe from Caley Park towards Sunset c.1816-18
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
The Valley of the Wharfe from Caley Park towards Sunset
c.1816-18
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Valley of the Wharfe from Caley Park towards Sunset c.1816–18
D25219
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 97
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 97
Watercolour on white wove paper, 347 x 487 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 97’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 97’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1934
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest [Loan Series B], Public Gallery and Museum, Hove, December 1934–March 1935, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, December 1948–January 1949, Celebration of the Centenary of Turner’s Death [Loan Series B], National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, February–March 1951 (no catalogue but frame no.25, as ‘A Wharfedale Subject (?)’).
1952
Turner Watercolours for the Huntingdon [sic] Art Gallery, Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino, California, January–March 1952 (no number but frame no.25, as ‘A Wharfedale Subject (?)’, c.1820–30).
1966
Turner Watercolours, Arts Centre, Folkestone, January–February 1966 (no catalogue, as ‘A Wharfedale subject (?)’).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (263, as ‘Looking down from Otley Chevin into the Valley of the Wharfe’, c.1828).
1976
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, February–May 1976 (28, as ‘Looking down from Otley Chevin into the Valley of the Wharfe’, c.1828, reproduced).
1976
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, May–July 1976 (88, as ‘Blick von Otley Chevin hinab in das Tal der Wharfe’, c.1828, reproduced).
1984
Turner’s Tour of Richmondshire/Yorkshire: In Turner’s Footsteps through the Hills and Dales of Northern England, Tate Gallery, London, July–December 1984 (no catalogue, as ‘A Wharfedale subject (?)’).
1995
Sketching the Sky: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, September 1995–February 1996 (no number, as ‘Sunset over Wharfedale from Caley Park ‘, c.1818–20).
2007
Hockney on Turner Watercolours, Tate Britain, London, June 2007–February 2008 (not in catalogue).
References
1820
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.821, CCLXIII 97, as ‘A Wharfedale subject (?)’ , c.1820–30.
1820
Exhibition of Turner Watercolours for the Huntingdon [sic] Art Gallery, exhibition catalogue, Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino, California 1952, p.3 no number, British Museum frame no.25, as ‘A Wharfedale Subject (?)’, c.1820–30.
1828
Andrew Wilton in Martin Butlin, Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, pp.97–8 no.263, as ‘Looking down from Otley Chevin into the Valley of the Wharfe’, c.1828.
1828
David Loshak and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 1976, p.46 no.28, as ‘Looking down from Otley Chevin into the Valley of the Wharfe’, c.1828, reproduced p.47.
1828
Andrew Wilton in Werner Hofmann, Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, p.141 no.88, as ‘Blick von Otley Chevin hinab in das Tal der Wharfe’, c.1828, reproduced.
1818
Sketching the Sky: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, p.[4] no number, as ‘Sunset over Wharfedale from Caley Park ‘, c.1818–20.
1997
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.103 Appendix I ‘Yorkshire’.
This ‘colour beginning’ shares its bright colours with Tate D17177 (Turner Bequest CXCVI M), a study, which David Hill has dated to about 1816, observing that ‘the use of brilliant red, blue, green and yellow ... is not much in evidence ... before this date.’ 1 That study relates to the watercolour Farnley Hall from Otley Chevin, of about 1816 or a little later;2 with its foreground of goats perched among conifers and rocks, it has ‘something of an Alpine appearance’,3 and has been described as a compositional pendant4 to the slightly larger watercolour of about the same period, Valley of the Wharfe from Caley Park (currently untraced),5 showing deer in a similar setting. The present work in turn relates to the latter design.
Andrew Wilton recognised the connection with one of Turner’s pencil sketches (Tate D12108; Turner Bequest CLIV J), which he described as ‘presumably made in about 1817’, while dating this sheet to as late as about 1828, on account of the ‘light tonality and palette of pure red, yellow and blue’;6 Eric Shanes has since placed it somewhat earlier, at about 1819.7 In the present catalogue, David Hill dates the pencil drawing to between 1808 and 1816, and described the view ‘from near Caley Crags at the east end of Otley Chevin, looking west up Wharfedale to the Cow and Calf Rocks above Ilkley in the centre distance, with Denton Hall indicated in the right distance. The town of Otley occupies the valley floor below to the right’. The viewpoint is south-south-east of Farnley Hall, on the opposite side of the river. Hill notes that Tate D12109 (Turner Bequest CLIV F), which he dates more specifically to about 1809, shows much the same prospect. With its more prominent rocks on the left, it is closest to the finished watercolour.
In the present case the rocks are somewhat less emphatic and the prospect thus more open, as in D12108. As such, with little or no under-drawing, it appears to represent an intermediate exercise in establishing both the composition and the glowing contre-jour effect. Compared to the almost prismatic effect here, the completed work is somewhat more conventional in the colouring of its sky, with the sun higher and further to the right, albeit still emitting rays and glowing strongly. In this it recalls Claude Lorrain (1604/5–1682); so admired and emulated by Turner, he often include the sun low over water and architecture.8 Compare for example Turner’s painting The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire, exhibited in 1817 (Tate N00499).9
David Hill in Hill, Stanley Warburton, Mary Tussey and others, Turner in Yorkshire, exhibition catalogue, York City Art Gallery 1980, pp.36–7.
Hill 2008, p.73, ill.62 (colour); Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.371 no.613, as ‘Farnley Hall, from above Otley’, c.1815; see also Finberg 1909, I, p.600, as ‘Wharfedale, from the Chevin’, and Hill 1980, p.36 no.41, as ‘Wharfedale with Farnley Hall, from the West Chevin’, c.1818’
Wilton 1979, p.371 no.617, reproduced, as c.1815; Hill 1980, p.37 no.44, as ‘The Valley of the Wharfe, with Otley, from Caley Park’, c.1818.
See Ian Warrell and others, Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery, London 2012.
Technical notes:
The sun is reserved as white paper just above the centre of the composition Turner has lifted out a diagonal band of colour in the clouds above to suggest a sunbeam, as developed in the finished watercolour.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by ?John Ruskin in pencil ‘AB 93 P | O’ towards bottom right; inscribed in pencil ‘59’ at centre, ascending vertically; inscribed in pencil CCLXIII.97’ towards bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCLXIII – 97’ towards bottom right.
Matthew Imms
September 2016
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘The Valley of the Wharfe from Caley Park towards Sunset c.1816–18 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2016, https://www