|
The photo on the left shows
the painting as it appeared before restoration. The masterpiece that was
to emerge later was hidden under layers of over painting, some in
acrylic. It is not possible here to go into the several year project
that was required to remove the layers that did not belong to the
original. The image on the right shows the final condition of the
painting.
It has not proved possible to identify the subject with certainty.
Infrared photography revealed details of a small country church to the
left, partly obscured by the tree. This has a squat square tower to the
left, and three pointed arches to the nave, probably perpendicular in
date. This gives us an orientation northwest since the church tower will
be to the west as is customary. The subject is clearly English, but a
river valley such as this could be found in many widely differing
regions. A suggestion that this may show a Sussex landscape would be
consistent with Turner's activities in the later 1820's when he was
associated with the Earl of Egremont and was a regular visitor to
Petworth House in West Sussex.
The painting has at some stage lost some surface layers and detail,
probably in some overzealous attempt at cleaning and was consequently
'repainted'. Nevertheless, a dramatically atmospheric composition
survives. Within a Claudian framework is a clockwise cycle of
evaporation and precipitation. The cycle is expressed in abstract terms
through color, particularly in the use of complementary mauve and
yellow. The juxtaposition is most vivid at the left where the upward
movement of the cyclic is at its most pronounced. Mauves and blues mark
out the lines of evaporation and precipitation across the sky, and
yellow marks the points at which the energy of light is at its most
active, streaked across the sky in the rainbow and dappled across the
land in the mid distance. The cycle is further animated by the broad
impasto of the sky and the intricate interleaving of color in the middle
distance. The result is an equation of abstract form and elemental
content highly characteristic of the work of Turner's late career.
This painting was first reported by Dr. David Hill in "Turner Society
News 66", March 1994, when the discovery attracted worldwide media
interest. Coverage focused on
fingerprints found in
the paint at the top left of the foreground tree, which had been
positively cross-matched by Biro, Laliberté and Manners, with
fingerprints in the paint of examples in the Turner Bequest at the Tate
Gallery. Early in 1995 these were independently re-examined by John
Manners and his staff at the Fingerprint department of West Yorkshire
Police, and the cross-match confirmed the fingerprint from Turner's
painting "Chichester Canal" at the Tate Gallery.
Further tests have since been carried out. The Painting Analysis
department of University College, London has recently made a detailed
physical examination, and found the structuring method consistent with
Turner's known techniques as described by Joyce Townsend in "Turner's
Painting Techniques," 1994. Pigment analysis indicates a date of the
later 1820's or after, that is, in the latter part of Turner's career.
( Images reproduced by permission of the former owner. ) |