Studio: international art (55.1912)

Turner at Farnley Hall

ment as those in which Turner has enshrined
his own living experiences. Some of the drawings
which have stirred Turner to exert to the utmost
his powers of design and graphic representation
are the views which show what Farnley Hall
looks like from a distance. One of these is taken
from the point where the Washburne flows into
the Wharfe, about a mile and a half below Farnley.
Some fishermen are busy on the bank or in the
river, while their rods, basket, and a number of
gleaming fish are spread out on the shingly bank
in the foreground. To the left, the eye follows
the winding of the Wharfe along its shady and
picturesque banks, and on the right, above the
trees and gently sloping fields, stands Farnley
Hall proudly crowning the height. It seems to
look down with friendly eyes upon the beautiful
scenery. Other views are taken across the river,
on the south side, from the rocky heights of the
Otley Chevin. One of these was included in
the selection of historical English water-colours,
recently exhibited by the Walpole Society at the
Grafton Galleries. It represents the view from
the Chevin looking towards Arthington and
Harewood. In the middle distance the Wharfe
is seen winding towards Poole Bridge. Farnley
Hall is seen across the river, looking out from
among the trees which surround it. Above it rise
Stainburn and the moors, with Great Alms Cliff in
the distance. Another drawing made apparently
from about the same spot shows the view looking
to the west towards Burley, Ilkley, and Bolton.
Otley, with its square-towered church, lies at our
feet; the foreground is filled with wonderfully
drawn groups of deer sitting among the ferns, or
standing in the shadows cast by the huge rocks.

After the views of the house showing how it
looks from the inside and outside, from this point
of view and that, from near and far, we come to
the drawings of all the principal scenes of interest
in the grounds and in the neighbourhood. Both
the lodge gates have been immortalised in this
way, the one at the entrance to the park, on the
Leathley side of the grounds, which tradition avers
(apparently without the slightest foundation) to
have been designed by Turner, and the other at
the Otley entrance. Then we have a view of the
carriage-drive, a steep ascent from Otley, into
which Turner has introduced a coach drawn by
galloping horses urged on by blue-coated postilions.
No doubt the master of the house is in the coach
and he is evidently in a hurry to get home. As
the road drops away behind the dust of the coach
one sees the lodge gates just being closed, and

beyond them we get a charming glimpse of the
river flowing under Otley Bridge, with the Ilkley
moors and the Cow and Calf Rocks in the distance.
Other drawings show the ladies of the family
boating on Lake Tiny or walking or sitting beside
it or in the grounds; in others we see the gentle-
men striding with guns under their arms and dogs
at their heels, or riding, or encamped on the
moors.

These drawings prove the intimacy of Turner’s
relations with Mr. Walter Fawkes and his family.
The appreciation of his genius and the warm-
hearted friendship shown to him must have been
a source of great happiness to the artist. As
Thornbury says, Turner delighted to be at
Farnley : “ there he shot and fished, and was as
merry and playful as a child.” Thornbury also
speaks of a drawing Turner made of Mr. Fawkes’s
tent on the Farnley moors, where the servants are
shown drawing corks and preparing the luncheon
—the drawing still hangs in the saloon at the
house. “It was on one of these occasions,”
Thornbury adds, “that, on the return from shoot-
ing, nothing would satisfy Turner but driving
tandem home over a rough way, partly through
fields. I need hardly say that the vehicle was
soon capsized, amid shouts of good-humoured
laughter; and thenceforward Turner was known at
his host’s by the nickname of ‘ Over-Turner.’ ”
All who are familiar with the many drawings of
Yorkshire Turner made during the years of his
intimate friendship with Mr. Fawkes are aware of
the peculiar feeling of serenity and happiness
which runs through them. There can be no doubt
that it was not only the beauty of the scenery that
inspired the artist, but that the light of* the love
and admiration he found at Farnley Hall illumined
and transfigured the scenes endeared to him by
such associations. Those of us whose lives have
been brightened by the beauty of such wonderful
drawings as the Hornby Castle, The Crook of Lune,
and Turner’s many views of Bolton Abbey and
scenes on the Wharfe, owe a very real debt of
gratitude to the friend who attuned the artist’s
mind to such gracious harmonies. How intimately
the lovely scenery of Yorkshire was bound up in
Turner’s mind with memories of Mr. Walter
Fawkes is proved by the obstinacy with which he
persistently refused to revisit these spots after the
death of his friend in 1826.

At Farnley Hall, therefore, Turner’s influence is
all-pervading. His personality and genius haunt
the visitor at every turn, in the house, in the
gardens, and in all the surrounding country.

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