Andrew Clayton-Payne
Menu
    • Home
    • About
    • Notable sales
  • Andrew Clayton-Payne
    • Press
    • Publications
    • Contact

Notable sales

J.M.W. TURNER R.A.

(1775-1851)

Sunrise

Sunrise
Watercolour
19.7 x 26.3 cm
Acquired by a Private Collector

Provenance

H.A.J.  Munro of Novar 

J.P. Heseltine 

Ruskin Galleries 

Allon Dawson (by 1935)

By descent in his family until 1986

Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1987, no.40

Private Collection, UK

Exhibited

Agnews, Annual Exhibition, 1987, no.32

Literature

A.J. Finberg, Turner’s Newly Identified Yorkshire Sketchbook, Connoisseur, October 1935, pp. 185-7

A.J. Finberg, The Life of JMW Turner, 1961, pp.286-7

I. Warrell, Turner’s Sketchbooks, 2014, pp.134-5

 

This quickly executed depiction of the sun appearing through clouds at dawn originally came from a page in a half-filled sketchbook, known as the Farnley-Munro sketchbook, which was given by Turner to his friend and patron H.A.J. Munro of Novar. A piece of paper pasted inside the front cover of the Farnley-Munro sketchbook has this in Munro’s hand: “When I travelled in 1836 with Turner through France, Switzerland and Val d’Aosta I found this sketchbook among my things – I showed it to Turner, who after looking over it, again put it into my hands - I suppose it had been originally put up to enable him to make use of the unused paper in it”. 

 

 The paper is watermarked ‘J.Whatman 1822’ and A.J. Finberg has convincingly identified the sketchbook as dating to 19th November – 14th December, 1824 when Turner visited his friend and patron Walter Fawkes at Farnley Hall in Yorkshire. The dating is quite certain because Turner didn’t go to Farnley in either 1822 or 1823 and could not bear to go there again after Walter Fawkes’s death which took place on 25th October 1825. 

 

 This sketchbook therefore commemorates Turner’s last visit to Farnley. Finberg has suggested that the book was put into Turner’s luggage for the trip abroad by his housekeeper because she noticed that it was only half-filled. However, when Turner looked through it again in 1836 it must have evoked so many poignant memories of his friendship with Walter Fawkes that he decided to part with it, and thus gave it to Munro as recorded above. 

 

The watercolour has not been seen in public for over 30 years.

 

Read more

Related artworks

  • ${artwork.get('title_and_year')}
    J.M.W. TURNER R.A. A Sunset, perhaps off Margate, with a Mackerel Shoal
    Pencil, watercolour, and bodycolour on grey paper 19 x 28 cm
    Acquired by a Private Collector
  • ${artwork.get('title_and_year')}
    J.M.W. TURNER R.A. THE SKY AT DAWN
    Watercolour 10 x 11 in (26 x 29.5 cm)
    Acquired by a Private Collector
Previous
|
Next
21 
of 116

andrew@clayton-payne.com

07771563850

By Appointment,

22 Dalmeny Court, 8 Duke Street

St James's, London SW1Y 6BL

Copyright © 2025 Andrew Clayton-Payne
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences