DOI issue:
No. 228 (March 1912)
DOI article:Finberg, Alexander Joseph: Turner at Farnley Hall
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21156#0111
Turner at Farnley Hall
which are, it must be confessed, generally of the
most obvious and commonplace kind, being
doubtless supplied by Mr. Fawkes and his friends.
One of these represents some chains and manacles
placed beneath a picture of Marston Moor. On
the picture is flung a paper inscribed “Ship
Money. The King v. Hampden ”; the word
“ Guilty ” appearing plainly at the end of the
body of the document. Above the picture are
shown scrolls labelled “ Petition of Rights ” and
“ Remonstrance,” while a series of hands flourish-
ing banners and swords makes a sort of decora-
tive frieze running across the top of the design.
Another vignette shows Martin Luther’s Bible lying
“the moor hawk.” from a water-colour
DRAWING BY J. M. W. TURNER, R. A.
(Farnley Hall Collection)
open on a reading-desk, while some martyr is
being burnt at a stake beneath the towers of York
Minster.
The Fawkeses were also keen on natural history.
They amused themselves by putting together
several volumes of what they called a “ Book of
Ornithology.” Good specimens of all the birds
that are to be found in their neighbourhood were
collected, and samples of their plumage, claws,
beaks, &c., together with engravings and drawings
ilustrative of their habits and character, were stuck
in these books. Turner’s contributions consisted
of a series of nearly twenty water-colour portraits
of different birds. It is said that he shot most of
these birds before painting them. We know for
certain that he shot the cuckoo he has drawn,
for he alludes to it in one of his letters to Mr.
Hawksworth Fawkes. It was, he says, “ my first
achievement in killing on Farnley Moor, in earnest
“the green woodpecker.” from a water-colour
DRAWING BY J. M. W. TURNER, R.A.
(Farnley Hall Collection)
request of Major Fawkes to be painted for the
book.” Several of these drawings are marvels of
delicate and accurate workmanship. The heron
holding a fish in its mouth, the turkey, and the
dead grouse are masterpieces of still-life painting.
Mr. Ruskin speaks of these studies of birds as
“ more utterly inimitable than . . . anything else
he (Turner) has done.”
Turner’s genius, however, found worthier em-
ployment upon a series of drawings of the interior
and exterior of Farnley Hall, and the chief places
“the turkey.” from a water-colour drawing
BY J M. VV. TURNER, R.A.
(Farnley Hall Collection)
91
which are, it must be confessed, generally of the
most obvious and commonplace kind, being
doubtless supplied by Mr. Fawkes and his friends.
One of these represents some chains and manacles
placed beneath a picture of Marston Moor. On
the picture is flung a paper inscribed “Ship
Money. The King v. Hampden ”; the word
“ Guilty ” appearing plainly at the end of the
body of the document. Above the picture are
shown scrolls labelled “ Petition of Rights ” and
“ Remonstrance,” while a series of hands flourish-
ing banners and swords makes a sort of decora-
tive frieze running across the top of the design.
Another vignette shows Martin Luther’s Bible lying
“the moor hawk.” from a water-colour
DRAWING BY J. M. W. TURNER, R. A.
(Farnley Hall Collection)
open on a reading-desk, while some martyr is
being burnt at a stake beneath the towers of York
Minster.
The Fawkeses were also keen on natural history.
They amused themselves by putting together
several volumes of what they called a “ Book of
Ornithology.” Good specimens of all the birds
that are to be found in their neighbourhood were
collected, and samples of their plumage, claws,
beaks, &c., together with engravings and drawings
ilustrative of their habits and character, were stuck
in these books. Turner’s contributions consisted
of a series of nearly twenty water-colour portraits
of different birds. It is said that he shot most of
these birds before painting them. We know for
certain that he shot the cuckoo he has drawn,
for he alludes to it in one of his letters to Mr.
Hawksworth Fawkes. It was, he says, “ my first
achievement in killing on Farnley Moor, in earnest
“the green woodpecker.” from a water-colour
DRAWING BY J. M. W. TURNER, R.A.
(Farnley Hall Collection)
request of Major Fawkes to be painted for the
book.” Several of these drawings are marvels of
delicate and accurate workmanship. The heron
holding a fish in its mouth, the turkey, and the
dead grouse are masterpieces of still-life painting.
Mr. Ruskin speaks of these studies of birds as
“ more utterly inimitable than . . . anything else
he (Turner) has done.”
Turner’s genius, however, found worthier em-
ployment upon a series of drawings of the interior
and exterior of Farnley Hall, and the chief places
“the turkey.” from a water-colour drawing
BY J M. VV. TURNER, R.A.
(Farnley Hall Collection)
91