Turner's Water-Colours at Farnley Hall

This volume explores the early partnership between the young J.M.W. Turner and his Yorkshire patron, Walter Ramsden Hawksworth Fawkes. Drawing on sketchbooks, sales records, and contemporary accounts, it traces how their friendship began around 1802, when Turner’s Swiss travel sketches first caught Fawkes’s eye. The narrative follows the artist’s transition from copying the work of earlier water‑colourists to creating his own vivid Alpine scenes, many of which soon entered the Farnley Hall collection.

The author examines the distinctive qualities of Turner’s water‑colours—such as “Mer de Glace, Chamounix” and “Great Devil’s Bridge”—and contrasts them with the more subdued works of Warwick Smith that previously adorned the hall. By detailing purchase receipts, exhibition histories, and the patron’s notes, the book reveals how Turner’s imagination and technique reshaped the estate’s artistic legacy, offering listeners a vivid glimpse into the formation of a remarkable collection.