.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This is one of a pair of especially evocative watercolours in which Turner recorded or recreated the passing moments of dawn at the eastern end of the lake of Brienz (or Brienzer See) near the village of Kienholz. The related work is in the collection of Manchester Art Gallery (fig. 1), having been bequeathed to the institution in 1917 by James Thomas Blair (1863-1917), a Manchester-based cotton exporter, who left the institution 27 watercolours by Turner (Wilton, op. cit., no. 1470, as ‘Lucerne’; see Melva Croal in Turner Watercolors from Manchester, 1997, p. 19; and p. 111, no. 72).
Tracing the history of that work back to the nineteenth century, the earliest owner was previously thought to be Albert Wood, from whose collection it was sold as ‘Lake of Lucerne’ in May 1872 for £278 (W. Thornbury, Life and Correspondence of J.M.W. Turner, London 1877, p. 619). However, Mr Wood only appears to have acquired the watercolour now at Manchester from Agnew’s on 27 October 1870. The firm had bought it just a fortnight earlier from James Price (stock number 446, as ‘Lucerne’). Even further back, it had passed to Price from Agnew’s on 25 November 1865, which was also the date it became separated from its pair. Both works had been sold to Agnew by the dealer Ernest Gambart (1814-1902) with the same title for each of them - ‘Lake Como’ - but in the Agnew’s ledger that topographical identification was also supplemented with the word ‘Lucerne’ in brackets (stock numbers 7243 and 7244).
Seeing the works together, as they were in a recent exhibition, apparently for the first time since 1865, confirmed very tangibly the idea that Turner was attempting in his late watercolours of Switzerland to seize and preserve his experience of the changing nuances of fading light, much as Claude Monet would later attempt to capture his own engagement with the distinctive envelope of light at certain times of day.
Unlike the watercolour at Manchester, which thereafter generally retained the Agnew’s association with Lucerne, the title for this watercolour initially reverted to Como for its next owner, John Fleming, and remained described as such until it was acquired by a Mr Trotter in 1879. The uncertainties of its history after that date make it difficult to chart precisely, despite an apparent period in the collection of Lady Catherine Fortescue (1786-1854), latterly Countess of Portsmouth.
More certainly, the two views of Lake Brienz are part of a batch of late watercolours of Switzerland on delicate sheets with the same distinctive dimensions - 9 ¾ x 14 ¼ inches, or 24.9 x 36.7 cms - and painted using a similar palette range. Other sheets from this group include views at Lucerne, such as that recently acquired by the Kunstmuseum in that city, as well as various views of Thun and its neighbouring lake (i.e., National Galleries of Scotland and the watercolours sold in these Rooms on 3 January 2024, lot 78 (fig. 2), and on 3 July 2024, lot 238).
Another view of Brienz from this series (now apparently untraced) was in the collection of John Edward Taylor (1830-1905), indisputably the foremost of Manchester’s competitive Turner enthusiasts. Lot 74 in his legendary 1912 sale of around 100 Turner watercolours at Christie’s was described as ‘Brienz, The Lake extends to the Alps, seen in the distance’, with measurements almost identical to the present work. It was clearly a notable watercolour because it achieved one of the ten highest sums in the sale, and was bought by Agnew’s. Curiously, after passing to another dealer, it thereafter disappeared. It seems unlikely to be the work afterwards bequeathed to the Manchester Art Gallery, whose history is better documented. But perhaps the present work should be considered as a strong candidate, unless further evidence comes to light to contradict this supposition.
Curiously, Taylor’s correct recognition of Lake Brienz and the Bernese Alps as the subject of Turner’s sketching activities in the work he owned remained an isolated perception. By contrast, when this watercolour reappeared in the 21st century it was associated with Lake Lucerne, possibly reflecting the popularity of the scenes Turner had painted on that lake at Brunnen, or Fluelen, and looking across its waters towards Mount Rigi (see Christie’s, 5 June 2006, lot 53). By 2002 alternative locations had been suggested on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. In confirming the identity of the scene as a view near Brienz, David Hill has provided a rich survey of Turner’s responses to the small town and its surroundings at the eastern end of the lake, both in the 1840s and much earlier on his first perambulation of the Alps in 1802 (see op. cit.).
Compared with its pair in Manchester, this watercolour has a much greater range of tones, indicative of the gaining strength of daylight between the two images. In the Manchester scene, the lower slopes on the right side (below the pyramidal tip of the Niesen) are lost in shadow, even as the peaks above glow warmly. Similarly, on the left side in that work the sombre shadows limit the detail of what can be seen. Here in the related view, however, the light plays across the craggy mountainside, suggesting a deep recession of forests clinging to the rocky outcrops. And now that the sun is higher, over on the right side, the band of obscuring darkness has retreated towards the water, where the reflections are made up of tiny parallel brush marks.
The most telling difference between the interconnected images is, of course, the position of the moon, which, as it sinks down towards the mountains in the second of the two watercolours, introduces a sense of the passage of time, and the animation of a new day. As well as reserving areas of unpainted paper in planning each image, he also gave emphasis to the long reflections of the moon with the aid of bodycolour highlights or scratching. Whether Turner actually painted both works on the spot to this level of detail is debatable. More likely he blocked out the essence of each composition and enriched the painted surface at his leisure. There is also a feeling in this work of him moving away from the lake to introduce the foreshore and a wider area of shallows around the jetty, with the skeletal outline of perhaps a boat or a cart near the water’s edge.
We are grateful to Ian Warrell for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.
Tracing the history of that work back to the nineteenth century, the earliest owner was previously thought to be Albert Wood, from whose collection it was sold as ‘Lake of Lucerne’ in May 1872 for £278 (W. Thornbury, Life and Correspondence of J.M.W. Turner, London 1877, p. 619). However, Mr Wood only appears to have acquired the watercolour now at Manchester from Agnew’s on 27 October 1870. The firm had bought it just a fortnight earlier from James Price (stock number 446, as ‘Lucerne’). Even further back, it had passed to Price from Agnew’s on 25 November 1865, which was also the date it became separated from its pair. Both works had been sold to Agnew by the dealer Ernest Gambart (1814-1902) with the same title for each of them - ‘Lake Como’ - but in the Agnew’s ledger that topographical identification was also supplemented with the word ‘Lucerne’ in brackets (stock numbers 7243 and 7244).
Seeing the works together, as they were in a recent exhibition, apparently for the first time since 1865, confirmed very tangibly the idea that Turner was attempting in his late watercolours of Switzerland to seize and preserve his experience of the changing nuances of fading light, much as Claude Monet would later attempt to capture his own engagement with the distinctive envelope of light at certain times of day.
Unlike the watercolour at Manchester, which thereafter generally retained the Agnew’s association with Lucerne, the title for this watercolour initially reverted to Como for its next owner, John Fleming, and remained described as such until it was acquired by a Mr Trotter in 1879. The uncertainties of its history after that date make it difficult to chart precisely, despite an apparent period in the collection of Lady Catherine Fortescue (1786-1854), latterly Countess of Portsmouth.
More certainly, the two views of Lake Brienz are part of a batch of late watercolours of Switzerland on delicate sheets with the same distinctive dimensions - 9 ¾ x 14 ¼ inches, or 24.9 x 36.7 cms - and painted using a similar palette range. Other sheets from this group include views at Lucerne, such as that recently acquired by the Kunstmuseum in that city, as well as various views of Thun and its neighbouring lake (i.e., National Galleries of Scotland and the watercolours sold in these Rooms on 3 January 2024, lot 78 (fig. 2), and on 3 July 2024, lot 238).
Another view of Brienz from this series (now apparently untraced) was in the collection of John Edward Taylor (1830-1905), indisputably the foremost of Manchester’s competitive Turner enthusiasts. Lot 74 in his legendary 1912 sale of around 100 Turner watercolours at Christie’s was described as ‘Brienz, The Lake extends to the Alps, seen in the distance’, with measurements almost identical to the present work. It was clearly a notable watercolour because it achieved one of the ten highest sums in the sale, and was bought by Agnew’s. Curiously, after passing to another dealer, it thereafter disappeared. It seems unlikely to be the work afterwards bequeathed to the Manchester Art Gallery, whose history is better documented. But perhaps the present work should be considered as a strong candidate, unless further evidence comes to light to contradict this supposition.
Curiously, Taylor’s correct recognition of Lake Brienz and the Bernese Alps as the subject of Turner’s sketching activities in the work he owned remained an isolated perception. By contrast, when this watercolour reappeared in the 21st century it was associated with Lake Lucerne, possibly reflecting the popularity of the scenes Turner had painted on that lake at Brunnen, or Fluelen, and looking across its waters towards Mount Rigi (see Christie’s, 5 June 2006, lot 53). By 2002 alternative locations had been suggested on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. In confirming the identity of the scene as a view near Brienz, David Hill has provided a rich survey of Turner’s responses to the small town and its surroundings at the eastern end of the lake, both in the 1840s and much earlier on his first perambulation of the Alps in 1802 (see op. cit.).
Compared with its pair in Manchester, this watercolour has a much greater range of tones, indicative of the gaining strength of daylight between the two images. In the Manchester scene, the lower slopes on the right side (below the pyramidal tip of the Niesen) are lost in shadow, even as the peaks above glow warmly. Similarly, on the left side in that work the sombre shadows limit the detail of what can be seen. Here in the related view, however, the light plays across the craggy mountainside, suggesting a deep recession of forests clinging to the rocky outcrops. And now that the sun is higher, over on the right side, the band of obscuring darkness has retreated towards the water, where the reflections are made up of tiny parallel brush marks.
The most telling difference between the interconnected images is, of course, the position of the moon, which, as it sinks down towards the mountains in the second of the two watercolours, introduces a sense of the passage of time, and the animation of a new day. As well as reserving areas of unpainted paper in planning each image, he also gave emphasis to the long reflections of the moon with the aid of bodycolour highlights or scratching. Whether Turner actually painted both works on the spot to this level of detail is debatable. More likely he blocked out the essence of each composition and enriched the painted surface at his leisure. There is also a feeling in this work of him moving away from the lake to introduce the foreshore and a wider area of shallows around the jetty, with the skeletal outline of perhaps a boat or a cart near the water’s edge.
We are grateful to Ian Warrell for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.