FDA-D.1694-2023

Parts

Object number

FDA-D.1694-2023

Object type

drawing

Identification

Title

Beech Trees in a Park
Beech Trees in Gatton Park

Title Type

Common name
Previous title

Description

Painted landscape view of trees with yellow and green leaves; cattle below the trees, haystacks/buildings to the right of the composition and a reclining figure in the foreground

Comments

This delicate drawing is thought to have been made on the estate of Turner’s friend and patron William Lock (1732–1810). Lock had commissioned Turner to draw his fern house at Norbury Park in Surrey. The resulting drawing is now untraced. However, in the grounds of the Norbury estate, Turner also made a remarkable series of studies of beech trees. The writer, illustrator and painter William Henry Pyne (1769–1843) later commented on this group of work: ‘His early studies of trees are invaluable, they show exquisite taste, beautiful and graceful forms, with careful drawing and they generally are of the most simple and rustic character.

Description

Dimensions

height (actual size): 247mm
width (actual size): 346mm

Inscription

signed or inscribed lower right: 'W. Turner, R.A.'

Material

watercolour
pencil
paper

Materials & techniques note

Watercolour over pencil on paper

Production

Person

Turner, Joseph Mallord William, 1775 - 1851 (Artist)

Date

c.1796

History and association

Object history note

Provenance: Collection of Mrs Cecil Keith, 1963; Agnew’s, London; 'Important British Drawings, Watercolours & Portrait Miniatures', Sotheby’s, London, 30 June 2005, Lot 250, as ‘A Beech Copse near Haystacks’; W/S Fine Art, London 2006; Collection of Richard Henry Allen Amis (K.S. 1945-50; 1932-2018); by whom bequeathed to Eton College

Exhibited: 'English Watercolour Drawings from the Collection of Mrs. Cecil Keith', Worthing Art Gallery, Sussex, 2 to 30 March 1963, catalogue number 53, as ‘A beech copse near haystacks’; 'The Watercolour Collection formed by Mrs. Cecil Keith', City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1 to 25 May, 1984; 'Watercolours and Drawings 1750 – 1950: The Annual Exhibition', W/S Fine Art, London, 7 June to 7 July 2006, catalogue number 17; 'Hidden Treasures: Masterpieces from the watercolour collection at Eton College', W/S Fine Art, London, 3 to 31 March 2010, catalogue number 15; 'An Etonian Collector: The Richard Amis Bequest', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 16 November 2023 to 24 March 2024