Friday, March 01, 2013

Turner's Sussex Pictures by Frederick Jones

The Sussex County Magazine January 1928, No. I Vol. II, pages 18 - 21

Jones writes about the "Views of Sussex (1820)" that Fuller commissioned Turner to create. The drawings were engraved by the Cooke brothers, George and William Bernard . The folio was comprised of "Pevensey Bay from Crowhurst Park (1816)" , "The Vale of Ashburnham (1819)", "Brightling Observatory from Rose Hill Park (1819)", "The Vale of Heathfield (1818)", and "Battle Abbey the Place Where Harold Fell (1819)". My understanding is that the engravings were done from drawings made by Turner betwen 1810 and 1816 and not from paintings. 

Crowhurst Park, the former seat of the Pelham and Papillion family, is now a "Holiday Village". Their website says,"The magnificent view which stretches south across the lush green Sussex countryside to the coast, was painted in 1816 by J.M.W. Turner, and although the whereabouts of the original painting is now unknown, a sketch made by Turner of the same scene is stored as part of a collection of sketches by Turner, in the Tate Britain Gallery." Crowhurst Park 

Turner's sketchbooks were bequeathed to Tate London. His sketch made of Brightling Observatory can be viewed here.

A second folio, to be called "Views at Hastings and its Vicinity", was in the works but never came to fruition. Below are prints from two of the plates intended for the second folio, top "Bodiham Castle, sic (1817)" and bottom "Hurstmonceux Castle (1820)".

After Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bodiham Castle, Sussex’ 1817

After Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Hurstmonceux Castle’ 1820

For more detailed information see catalogue entry on the Tate's website here.

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