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Dimensions: 28.8 by 40.5 cm., 11 1/4 by 16in.

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Provenance: THE PROPERTY OF A LADY AND A GENTLEMAN

Charles Heath;
Thomas Griffith, 1833;
Benjamin Godfrey Windus (bt.by Edward Rodgett in 1857);
Edward Rodgett, his sale at Christie's 14^th May 1859, lot 44, bt.Dickson, £168.0.0;
By descent until sold in these Rooms on 15^th March 1990, lot 96, £430,000

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Exhibited: London, Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, June 1829, no.13;
London, Messrs Moon, Boys and Graves Gallery, June-July 1933, no.1;
New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, Sketching at Home and Abroad, British Landscape Drawings, 1750-1850, 6^th May -2^nd August 1992, no.100

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Literature: The Art Union, April 1839, no.3;
John Ruskin, Modern Painters, 1867, part 11, section 11, chapter 111, p.175;
Sir Walter Armstrong, Turner, 1902, p.256;
E.T.Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, ed., The Works of John Ruskin, Library Edition, 1903 and 1904, vol.3, p.308 and vol.13, p.L;
W.C.Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W.Turner, R.A., 1908, vol.I, p.134, vol.II, p.194;
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W.Turner, 1979, no.812;
Eric Shanes, Turner's Picturesque Views in England and Wales 1825-1838, 1983, p.154, no.102, the engraving illustrated pl.102;
Turner Studies - His Art and Epoch 1775-1851, Vol 3, no.2, p.56;
Turner Studies - His Art and Epoch 1775-1851, 1987, Vol.7, no.2, p.34;
Turner Studies - His Art and Epoch 1775-1851, 1990, Vol.10, no.1, illus.back cover (1990 auction price misprinted);
Turner Studies - His Art and Epoch 1775-1851, 1990, Vol.10, no.2, p.61 & 64;
Eric Shanes, Turners England 1810-1838, 1990, p.274, no.251;
Turner Studies - His Art and Epoch 1775-1851, 1991, Vol.11, no.1, p.61;
Cara D Denison, Evelyn J. Phimister & Stephanie Wiles, Sketching at Home and Abroad: British Landscape Drawings, 1750-1850, 1992, pp.46-47, fig.26

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Notes: Turner chose to view Hampton Court Palace from the south, looking across the river Thames from near the small tributary of the Ember. The south front of the Palace is seen beyond the Pond Garden, the Privy Garden and the Banqueting Hall, whilst, on the river, the activity of four men working on a barge contrasts to the peaceful scene of a clergyman, a lady, each seated on a substantial chair, and a boy, fishing from a small punt. Beyond them, various bystanders, boatmen and a horse and cart are picked out by the artist on the far bank by the landing stage used for Westminster bound vessels whilst in the foreground ducks with their young launch into the shallows. The old willow trees are exquisitely drawn and cast shadows which are curiously human in shape. John Ruskin, in Modern Painters, noted this as 'another very striking instance' of Turner's use of chiaroscuro (see Literature: op.cit.).

Prominent in the foreground is the remains of an old basket which forms the shape of a crown (see fig.1) - an appropriate detail considering Turner was depicting a Royal Palace, perhaps even an oblique reference to the absence of court gatherings at this Palace since George II's reign. Eric Shanes (see Literature: Turner's England) has suggested that further associations with the crown can be seen in the stately procession of duck representing the Court (see fig.2) and the large throne-like chair on which the clergyman sits while fishing on board a small boat (see fig.3).

This, his only completed view of Hampton Court, is Turner's sole record of a historical Royal Palace apart from a number of oils and watercolours of Windsor Castle (see Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W.Turner, 1979, nos.P149, P163, P177, P179, P180, 174, 829). This perhaps reflects his lack of patronage from Royal circles which persisted throughout his life. He painted nothing for George III and the only work which was commissioned by George IV was an oil of The Battle of Trafalgar (National Maritime Museum) which formed part of a carefully planned display of portraits and battle pieces designed to hang in St. James' Palace. That commission was secured for Turner by Sir Thomas Lawrence but unfortunately failed to ignite interest from the Royal family, and further attempts to attract business from the monarch included two watercolours of Virginia Water of circa 1829 (Wilton nos.519 and 520) and his 1841 Royal Academy exhibit, Schloss Rosenau, seat of H.R.H. Prince Albert of Coburg (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool). None of these were purchased by the monarch of the time. Nonetheless, by drawing the present work, Turner recognised the importance of Hampton Court Palace as a prime subject for Picturesque Views of England and Wales, a project described by Ruskin as 'the great central work of...[his] life'.

Turner began drawing watercolours for his Picturesque Views in England and Wales in 1825. He worked under the direction of the print maker and publisher Charles Heath whose intention was to purchase each of the watercolours from Turner and then sell them after an engraving of each was published. According to Rawlinson, Turner was paid between 'sixty to seventy guineas a piece' for each watercolour, although Finberg later maintained that it was probably half of that figure. Shanes, however, (see Literature: Turner's England, p.13) provides the answer when he records a letter of 19^th February 1825 written by Charles Heath in which the publisher wrote of the first four drawings he took from Turner for the project, '..I have just got four and they are the finest things I ever saw they cost me 30 Gins each and I have been offered 50 Gins each by two or three different gentlemen.' The engravings were published in parts of four at a time, the first appearing on 1^st March 1827. The initial momentum unfortunately faltered in the 1830's because of the expense of the project, and in 1837, Longmans, who by this time were the publishers, bought the whole project to a conclusion by producing two volumes, each with forty six engravings taken from the ninety six watercolours which Turner had drawn. Alongside his Swiss views, Turner's England and Wales watercolours are regarded as his most important.

The engraving taken from the present watercolour was published in 1829 as No.4 of the seventh part or group (see fig.4). It accompanied views of Louth, Great Yarmouth and Stonehenge. Engraved by C.Westwood, it differed from the original watercolour in two respects; a solitary figure was added to the left bank of the river probably because the effect of the subtle gradations of colour which are a feature of that passage of the watercolour could not be adequately reproduced by the engraver. Secondly, the engraving includes feathers and pebbles around the basket in the foreground which Rawlinson notes were scratched in by Turner on the second proof of the engraving.

Although the print did not appear until 1829, the watercolour probably dates from between 1825 and 1828. Stylistically, it relates closely to More Park (Wilton 734; Turner Bequest CCVIII-H), which was executed circa 1823 and engraved for Rivers of England (Rawlinson 754) in 1824. Pencil sketches of Hampton Court Palace, are in the Isle of Wight sketchbook (TB CCXXVII), pages 1a, 2a, 3, 3a, 39, 39a and 42a. Colour Beginnings, less definite in their association with the watercolour are TB CCLXIII - 161 (watermarked 1825), 162, 187 and 188.

In the Isle of Wight sketchbook, 1a and possibly 2a show sketches of the figures in the punt, 2a has a study of the curved wall at the end of the Broad Walk and the horse and cart below it. Also on that page are some aide memoire of the fenestration of Wren's south front of the Palace. 3a has two words written, which appear to be 'as shallow', evidently a note to remind him to leave the river level low in the completed composition. Further details of the Palace are on page 39a and 42a.

The sketch from the same viewpoint in the Isleworth sketchbook of 1805 (TB XC - 36), (see fig.5) shows that Turner remembered the view and returned to it twenty years later. The 1805 sketch was a preparatory study for the oil sketch of the view of c.1806-7 in the Tate (N02963) (fig.6).

By the time Turner first drew Hampton Court in 1805 it was no longer lived in by the monarch. George III had come to the throne in 1760, but unlike his father, George II, he showed little interest in the Palace, preferring Windsor Castle. The Palace had originally been built by Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, in 1514 as a symbol of his own wealth and power. Later, however, in an attempt to win favour with Henry VIII, he presented Hampton Court to the crown. Within six months Henry VIII had begun his own building operations there and by the time it was finished in about 1540, it was one of the most modern, sophisticated and magnificent buildings in England. The second great rebuilding occurred soon after the accession of William III and Mary II in 1689. Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to plan a new Palace and he rebuilt the King and Queen's main apartments on the south and east sides of the building, on the site of the old Tudor lodgings. George II's reign saw the final flowering of Hampton Court. The Queen's State and Private Apartments were redecorated and refurnished for Queen Caroline and new lodgings were made on the east side of Clock Court in 1732 for the Duke of Cumberland. In 1737, however, Queen Caroline died and George II never visited the palace again with the full court. After the death of the King in 1760 Hampton Court was never occupied again by a reigning sovereign.

By the time Turner was a young man, antiquarians and architects were beginning to show an increasing interest in the building and wanted to restore it to something of its original glory. The first stage of restoration was in 1796, when James Wyatt, Surveyor of the King's Works, removed the stage and seating in the Great Hall. His work foreshadowed various phases of Victorian restoration, which began in the 1830s under a new Superintendent, Edward Jesse. In 1838, ten years after the engraving of the present work was published, Queen Victoria opened the Palace to the public and, since then it has become one of England's most visited historic Royal sites.

The first owner of Hampton Court Palace was Charles Heath (1785-1848). Heath, son of another engraver, was during the 1820's and 1830's the chief promoter of 'Annuals', the publications of engravings feeding the growing interest amongst the British public in travel and literary records, particularly views of remote spots and European views. In the 1830's Heath concentrated solely on commissioning engravers for the publications like 'The Keepsake', 'The Picturesque Annual', The Literary Review' and 'The Book of Beauty'. Before that, he owned Hampton Court Palace as part of the contract he struck with Turner in which he purchased the watercolours for Picturesque Views in England and Wales, and then he arranged for the engravings and their publication through the publishers Hurst & Robinson. His confidence in the success of the project is evident in the letter he wrote to a friend on 19^th Feb 1825, 'The Drawings, what is very unusual they will yield a profit as much as the Plates...Messrs Hurst and Robinson are to have half the work on condition they find all the capital necessary - so that I have half the Drawings and half the Profits at no risk.' Unfortunately Hurst & Robinson suffered bankruptcy in early 1826; Heath found another publisher Robert Jennings & Company, they financing just half of the project, Heath taking on responsibility for the remaining costs.

To draw attention to the publication, Heath, in 1829, rented the Large Gallery of the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, and mounted an exhibition of engravings and thirty five of the watercolour originals, including the present work. Four years later, in June and July 1833, he arranged another exhibition at the Moon, Boys and Graves Gallery (to whom Robert Jennings had sold a half share in the project in 1831). Their gallery in Pall Mall was hung with no less than sixty six watercolours. A review in The Times reported that the rooms were brilliantly lit and that nearly two hundred artists and literati attended an informal converzazione on 3^rd July. Another record states that Turner himself was there '...his coarse, stout person, heavy look and homely manners contrasting strangely with the marvellous beauty and grace of the surrounding creations of his pencil'. The exhibition was generally well reviewed with The Athenaeum on 15^th June stating that 'these drawings are of a beauty for which we can find no parallels'.

The next owner of Hampton Court Palace was to be Thomas Griffith of Norwood. He lent about forty Turners to the 1829 Egyptian Hall exhibition and twenty seven to the 1833 Moon, Boys and Graves display. Griffith, described by Finberg (The Life of J.M.W.Turner 1961, p.346), as 'a man of independence means and an MA of Cambridge', was to become Turner's agent in the 1840's and was responsible for introducing the young John Ruskin to Turner at a dinner party in 1840. He was clearly a supporter and promoter of other artists too as noted by The Spectator of a presentation to him in November 1840. 'Mr Griffith, of Norwood, has been presented by a party of artists (twenty one, including Stanfield, Roberts, Fielding and Harding) with a superb piece of plate, as a testimonial of his valuable and disinterested services in promoting their interests by negotiating the sale of their works'. Griffith was a Trustee and Executor to the Estate of Turner on his death.

Benjamin Godfrey Windus (1790-1867), who once owned Hampton Court Palace, was a coach-maker who lived in Tottenham. He was a keen collector of Turner's watercolours and by 1840 he had over two hundred, including forty belonging to Turner's series of Picturesque Views in England and Wales. He also possessed a large collection of drawings and sketches by Sir David Wilkie, but it was his Turner watercolours which were most admired, for, in the words of William Robinson: 'they may be very justly considered the most choice and interesting specimens of the pencil of that great artist' (The History and Antiquities of Tottenham, 1840, Vol 1, pp.83-90). Windus's collection of Turners hanging in his library at Tottenham was recorded by John Scarlett Davis, the watercolour being sold in these Rooms 17^th November 1983 (154), now in the British Museum (1984-1-21-9). Edward Rodgett, who acquired the watercolour from Windus, also owned views of Dartmouth and Portsmouth, sold with Hampton Court Palace in the sale at Christies 14^th May 1859 (lots 49 and 39). After the 1859 Rodgett sale, Hampton Court Palace remained in one family collection for 130 years until, in 1989, it was discovered in a collection in Europe and sold in these Rooms 15^th March 1990 for £478,000, a record price for a British watercolour which was to remains so for six years. Since 1990. two watercolours have sold for more at auction, Mont Blanc from Fort Roch, Val D'Aosta (27 November 2002, Christies, £798,650) and Heidelberg with a Rainbow (14 June 2001, Sotheby's, £2,038,500).