Turner: Bamborough Castle
Bamborough Castle, a watercolour by William Turner, sells for BP2.9 millio Joseph Mallord William Turner’s (1775-1851) watercolour, Bamborough Castle, sold for £2,932,500, against a pre-sale estimate of £1.5-2.5 million to a US private collector who was bidding on the phone]]>
Wednesday, December 5, 2007, source: Sotheby’s
Tonight at Sotheby’s in London, Joseph Mallord William Turner’s (1775-1851) watercolour, Bamborough Castle, sold for £2,932,500, against a pre-sale estimate of £1.5-2.5 million to a US private collector who was bidding on the phone.
Four telephone bidders competed for the iconic work, driving the price comfortably in excess of its pre-sale high estimate. Tonight’s result ranks Bamborough Castle among the most important of Turner’s works ever sold at auction.
Henry Wemyss, Head of British Watercolours at Sotheby’s, commented after the sale: “This sale demonstrates the magic of Turner and the extraordinary watercolour techniques he alone developed. It fully shows his genius and it’s fantastic to see it appreciated by such an international audience this evening. It has been a real treat to have the privilege of bringing the watercolour to sale – after more than a century away from the public eye – and we are absolutely delighted with tonight’s result. I think the Graphic Society got it right in 1837 when they described it as ‘one of the finest watercolour-drawings in the world.’”
Dating from the mid 1830s, Turner’s Bamborough Castle has spent most of its life to date in the possession of a distinguished private collection and, remarkably, it had not been seen on the open market since 1872 – some 135 years. In 1872 it was sold as part of the Joseph Gillott collection in London and realised £3,309, the highest price ever achieved for a watercolour at the time. The Earl of Dudley was the purchaser on this occasion but later – in about 1890 – the picture passed into the hands of one of the great American collecting families, that of the Vanderbilts. The Vanderbilt family played a significant role in the history of the United States; they built a shipping and railroad empire during the 19th century which made them one of the wealthiest families in the world. Since entering the collection of Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt, the watercolour had passed down through successive generations of the family while the outside world has remained mystified as to its whereabouts. Listed as untraced in Andrew Wilton’s Catalogue of Turner Watercolours published in 1979, the work – prior to the sale exhibition – had not been seen in public since 1889.
Perched on an outcrop on the very edge of the North Sea at Bamborough, Northumberland, Bamborough Castle is one of England’s finest castles. In his watercolour, Turner has chosen to show the castle from its north side, the angle which clearly portrays the height and presence of the castle’s impressive Norman walls. The formidable castle is serenely depicted as the one point of safety in the midst of a charged landscape. In the foreground, a woman and girl appear to cower from the large roiling waves while a ship struggles to reach the security of the land under the great storm clouds.
In the 19th century the castle had a reputation for being one of the great places of refuge on the British coast during storms for sailors in distress. It actually had rooms within the walls that were put aside for rescued sailors as well as a marine rescue party that constantly patrolled an eight-mile stretch of the coast north and south of the castle. Turner was a great admirer of such details and he captures the castle’s preparations with a rocket launched in the distance and people gathered at the waters-edge, ready to rescue the sailors who are rowing away from their vessel that has struck the massive rocks.
The watercolour, which measures 505x705mm, relates to an earlier pencil drawing of the castle from 1797. The work has all of Turner’s signature elements; his energetic handling of colour which is often applied in rapid scratch-like strokes, or smeared into place with his fingertips, or scratched away with the tip of a brush to reveal the paper beneath.
Tonight’s result follows the sale of the Ullens Collection at Sotheby’s in July this year, which saw Turner’s Lungernzee realise £3.6 million. Spanning 44 years of the artist’s career, the 14 works offered in the Ullens collection represented the finest group of watercolours by the artist to have come to the market since the 1920s.
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