A Tale of Two Turners
6th September 2023
A small pencil and watercolour sketch by J M W Turner has sold for £23,940 at auction in Salisbury.
The diminutive study of the Castle of Beilstein on the Moselle river (lot 85) once belonged to the artist John Ruskin and appeared on the market for the first time since 1966.
Turner travelled to Europe in 1802, studying at the Louvre in Paris and including a number of well-known castles in his oeuvre of landscapes. Beilstein Castle (better known today as Metternich Castle) was ruined in the late 17th century and formed the basis of a number of Turner’s works.
A pencil sketch by Turner’s rival and fellow Romanticist, John Constable, featured the keep at Colchester Castle and sold in the same auction for £20,790 against a pre-sale estimate of £3,000-5,000 (lot 86).
From the collection of a former museum keeper, a watercolour by Turner sold for £40,320. The five inch high painting (lot 186) had featured in the 1974-75 exhibition of Turner’s work at the Tate Gallery and Royal Academy. It formed part of a series of coastal scenes executed around 1798, most of which featured in the Turner Bequest (displayed at the Tate Gallery). Until 1962 the painting had been in the same family – descendants of William Blake of Newhouse. Blake was a pupil of Turner’s and it is thought that the painting was gifted to him by the artist.
The two works by Turner provided an interesting juxtaposition between the artist’s early and later works. “The lively realism of the watercolour of the fishing vessel contrasts beautifully with the later sketch, which is a sublime example of the ethereal spontaneity usually associated with Turner’s art,” said Paintings specialist, Victor Fauvelle.
Both works sold to UK buyers.
