View from the Terrace of a Villa at Niton, Isle of Wight, from Sketches by a Lady
Joseph Mallord William Turner
(English, 1775–1851)
1826
Country of Origin, for CustomsEngland
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions45.7 x 61 cm (18 x 24 in.)
Credit LineBequest of William A. Coolidge
Accession number1993.46
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
This charming summer scene is based on watercolor sketches done by Lady Julia Gordon, who had been Turner's pupil years before. A view from the steps of her villa, it records the new fashion for "Italian" gardens with terraces and urns. Turner exhibited the painting under the title given here at the Royal Academy in 1826.
Provenance1826, exhibited by the artist at the Royal Academy and acquired by Julia Bennet, Lady Willoughby Gordon (b. 1776 - d. 1867), Northcourt, Shorwell, Isle of Wight [see note 1]; 1867, by inheritance to her son, Henry Percy Gordon (b. 1806 - d. 1876) and his wife, Mary Agnes Blanche Ashburnham (b. 1816 - d. 1899), Northcourt; 1899, by inheritance to their daughter, Mary Charlotte Julia Gordon (Mrs. R. W. Disney Leith; b. 1840 - d. 1926), Northcourt [see note 2]; to her son, Alexander Henry Leith, 5th Lord Burgh (b. 1866 - d. 1926); July 9, 1926, Lord Burgh sale, Christie's, London, lot 27, sold for £3097 to W. W. Sampson; 1928, sold by Sampson to Arthur Tooth and Sons, London (stock no. 8812) [see note 3]; July 11, 1933, sold by Tooth to William A. Coolidge (b. 1901 - d. 1992), Topsfield and Cambridge, MA; 1993, bequest of William A. Coolidge to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 27, 1993)NOTES:
[1] The painting was based upon sketches by Turner's former pupil, Julia Bennet. He exhibited it at the Royal Academy in 1826 (no. 297) as "View from the Terrace of a Villa at Niton, Isle of Wight, from sketches by a lady." See Hilda F. Finburg, " 'With Mr. Turner in 1797'," Burlington Magazine 99, no. 647 (February, 1957), pp. 48-51. On July 8, 1826, Turner wrote to John Soane that the painting already belonged to Lady Gordon; see John Gage, ed. Collected Correspondence of J. M. W. Turner (Oxford, 1980), p. 101, letter 117.
[2] She lent it to the Royal Academy, 1912, no. 117, as Terrace in the Isle of Wight.
[3] Arthur Tooth and Sons Stock Inventories and Accounts, Getty Research Institute, Box 13.
Joseph Mallord William Turner
1840
