Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA

The Venerable Archdeacon Charles Burney (1816-1907), by 1887;

Private Collection, until 1996;

with Agnew’s, London, by 1997,

by whom sold to a private collector

London, Royal Academy, Works of the Old Masters, 1887, no. 17 (lent by the Venerable Archdeacon Burney);

London, Agnew’s, English Watercolours and Drawings, Agnew’s 124^th Annual Exhibition, 1997, no. 36

Sir Walter Armstrong, Turner, London 1902, p. 241;

Turner Society News, vol. no. 75, March 1997, p. 12, illustrated 

In this charming watercolour, Turner adopts a low viewpoint and looks across a pond towards some substantial, if not rather dilapidated, farm buildings. Their state of disrepair is perhaps what attracted him to the scene, as he has clearly enjoyed exploring the different textures of the barns, with their thatched roofs and walls composed of both timber and plaster. Under the rickety extension Turner positions a large wooden wagon where the play of light and complex perspectives is expertly observed. Near the water’s edge lies a young man, who seems intent on enjoying the fine weather, rather than doing anything productive around the farm. 

The watercolour is thought to date to circa 1794-5 and it shares characteristics and technical traits with Turner’s Chale Farm, Isle of Wight - a work he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1796 - (see London, Sotheby’s, 3 July 2024, lot 54), his West Gate at Canterbury (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin) and a view of Winchmore Hill, near London, now in the Huntington Museum, San Marino.¹ Scenes of this kind, which focus on everyday subjects, may have been encouraged by Turner’s early patron Dr Thomas Monro, who owned a house at Monken Hadley, not far from Winchmore Hill.

Although the very earliest owners of this watercolour are currently unknown, the work has an interesting history. Its first known owner was Charles Burney (1816-1907) who lent it to the Royal Academy exhibition in 1887. He was the great-grandson of Dr Charles Burney (the eighteenth-century musical historian and friend of Dr Johnson) and great-nephew of novelist Fanny Burney. In the 1880s he was appointed archdeacon of the Anglican church at Kingston-upon-Thames.

We are grateful to Ian Warrell for his help when cataloguing this work.

^1.A. Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p. 315, nos. 56, 86 & 142