Turner's early training in architecture and perspective appear at odds with the informal and dynamic style that he developed from the 1820s. He had initially attended lessons in perspective given by Thomas Malton Junior (1748-1804), an architectural designer and topographical artist before entering the studio of the eminent architect Thomas Hardwick (1752-1829). In 1798 he entered the Royal Academy Schools, having spent three years at Dr Thomas Monro's informal Academy, where young artists were employed in the evenings to copy works by other more established artists. However, this solid grounding was crucial in his later development, giving him the confidence to become so technically daring.

During the 1820s and 30s Turner began to work in series, developing a rapid system of working simultaneously on several sheets at a time, which as they developed were either rejected or not, as the artist began to see the direction of the finished work. William Leighton Leitch (1804-1883) described the process following a visit to the artist's studio;  There were four drawing-boards, each of which had a handle screwed to the back. Turner, after sketching in his subject in a fluent manner, grasped the handle and plunged the whole drawing into a pail of water by his side. Then, quickly, he washed in the principal hues that he required, flowing tint into tint, until this stage of the work was complete. Leaving the first drawing to dry, he took the second board and repeated the operation. By the time the fourth drawing was laid in, the first would be ready for the finishing touches. (J. Gage, J.M.W. Turner, A Wonderful Range of Mind, London, 1987, p. 89).

As is evident in works such as the present study, Turner became increasingly interested in the effects of light and shadow on his chosen subject. In order to capture the minute changes of form and colour wrought by ever changing atmospheric effects, his style became more abstract and experimental. Colour, overall form and an emotional interpretation became increasingly important. It is often difficult to identify the subjects of many of these studies, not only because of the artist's change in style and emphasis away but also because Turner travelled constantly during the 1820s and 1830s throughout Britain and Europe.

Often referred to as 'Colour Beginnings', the expression has its source in an inscription pencilled on an abandoned watercolour, Beginning for Dear Fawkes of Farnley. John Ruskin, when he sorted through the works that Turner had left to the nation on his death, had grouped almost 400 unfinished watercolours into bundles which he labelled as Colour effects or Beginnings of. As Gerald Wilkinson states however, most of [these studies] are clearly ends in themselves - though of potential use in more complex works: they are ideas, thoughts observations, experiments - and sometimes they are beginnings given up for one reason or another. (G. Wilkinson, Turner's Colour Sketches 1820-34, London, 1975, p. 150).

This study is likely to depict an as yet unidentified river scene in France, although it has also been previously suggested that it could depict the Syon House from across the River Thames (Sotheby's 1978). Between 1819 and 1832, France was central to Turner's travels through Europe, indeed during this period, there are only about five years when he was not specifically visiting or travelling through the country. However, until 1826, Turner had only concentrated on the narrow area between Dieppe and Calais; the route to Paris, Belgium, the Netherlands; or the well-worn route to the Alps. In 1826, Turner decided to explore the Loire River, travelling over 1500 miles between the end of August and the end of October. Following his return, Turner published twenty-one views as illustrations to Turner's Annual Tour in 1833, which became widely regarded as being amongst the artist's most accomplished series of engravings.  The initial inspiration for this trip is uncertain, but Turner had long been fascinated by rivers and the Loire was the longest river in France. Furthermore, he must have been inspired by both his own work capturing the rivers and canals of England, for the publication of the same name (published 1822-6) and the work of his contemporaries, exploring European subjects, such as J F d'Ostervald's Excursion sur les côtes et dans les ports de Normandie (1823-5), or G. Reeves' The Coasts and Ports of France from Dunkerque to Havre de Grave, (1825).

During his 1826 tour, Turner not only used the two different sized sketchbooks which he favoured, a smaller size where he could work rapidly capturing a subject from multiple viewpoints and a larger one that allowed a more detailed exploration of a view. He also took bundles of loose sheets, some white wove sheets and numerous sheets of a blue or blue-grey wove paper, such as used for the present study. This coloured paper was strong enough for Turner's needs, allowing him to carry them around with him and to work outside, directly from nature and to cope with the full range of his techniques. 

Turner used paper from numerous mills and manufacturers throughout Europe, but his understanding of the nature of paper and the effects that different papers had on his work was highly informed and he was discriminating in his selection. He is known to have regularly visited mills and sampled papers to see how they responded. He needed strong papers that could stand up to his treatment, including wetting the sheets, building up layers of colour and scratching out areas of pigment. As Peter Bower discusses in Turner's Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection, and Use of His Drawing Papers 1820-1851 Turner's life spanned the enormous changes in the production of paper, from being largely a small-scale, craft-based industry and evolving into a large-scale, heavily industrialised, factory-based system.

The blue paper that Turner began to use from the mid 1820s, was supplied as full imperial size sheets, 22 x 30 inches which he then tore up, using a wooden ruler, into ½, ¼ or ⅛ size or most popularly 1/16, or 7 x 5 inches, as in the present work. Made by George Steart of Bally, Ellen and Steart, De Montalt Mill, Combe Down, Bath, from about 1821, using the best of the new techniques, their range of coloured paper provided Turner and his contemporaries with sheets suitable for a wide range of uses. Other artists including Constable, Cox, de Wint, Varley, Bonington and Cotman all used their papers. Previously Turner had only been able to access a cheaper blue paper, which he reserved for compositional studies in his studio. If he wanted a colour paper suitable for sketching directly from nature, he had tinted his preferred Whatman paper. The appeal of blue paper was that it provided an instant warm tone and thus saved Turner time in having to prepare his sheets to create this effect.

George Steart was experimental, he explored different finishes and produced a flecked blue wove paper in a variety of weights, tones and colours. The paper that Turner preferred was a linen paper, finished with a gelatine sizing to provide an additional strength the surface of the paper. Steart was highly regarded by his competitors and when he died in 1837, several manufacturers continued to produce coloured papers emulating the De Montalt Mill paper, citing the fact that the original was no longer available. It is often difficult to see the B E & S watermark without using a fibre optic light source or x-ray, so many of their papers appear not to be watermarked. Furthermore, with Turner tearing down the sheets, many of them are only part of a larger sheet, so individually do not have a watermark.

Andrew Wilton (op cit.) notes that there was an old inscription on the back of the old frame which noted 'given to HDR 1878 by Frank Barnett'. Francis Gilmore Barnett was the younger brother of the Church of England Cleric and eminent social reformer, Canon Samuel Barnett. He continued to work in the family iron manufacturing company in Bristol and was active in local politics as a Liberal Councillor . He also founded the Bristol Tavern and Club Company, to establish temperance taverns throughout the city. He was assisted for a time by the Anglican priest, social reformer, conservationist, local politician and writer, Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, who amongst other things, was one of the three founders of the National Trust in 1895, along with Octavia Hill and Robert Hunter. Rawnsley had begun to take an interest in social reform whilst studying at Balliol College, where he came under the influence of John Ruskin and through him met Hunter and Hill (co-incidentally, Hill was also a friend of Samuel Barnett's wife). Rawnsley married Edith Fletcher in 1878, which suggests that the present work may have been a wedding present.

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Auction Details

Wednesday 12 June, 10.30am BST
Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE

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