JMW Turner
Royal Academician
Joseph Mallord William Turner
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signed 'TURNER RA' (lower left, overmounted) and inscribed 'LALLAH ROOKH. Collections Walter Fawkes, Farnley Hall.
Literature Sir Walter Armstrong, Turner, 1902, p. 60.
This drawing is a highly finished illustration of 1822 for Walter Fawkes's literary album in the library at Farnley Hall, illustrating the Three Poets in Three Different Kingdoms Born, Scott, Byron and Moore. Walter Fawkes's interests were literary as well as political, historical, antiquarian and sporting. Lalla Rookh [sic] by Thomas Moore (1779-1852) was begun in 1812 and was commissioned by Longman's for 3,000 guineas, the largest fee paid to that date. It was published in 1817, and ran to many editions. Among illustrators of the poem were Richard Westall, John Tenniel, Myles Birket Foster and Henry Warren. As well as being a fashionable success in England, it had a European reputation, being translated by de la Motte Fouqué and was the subject of a composition by Schumann. Turner met Moore in November 1819 in Rome at dinner with Canova, Thomas Lawrence and Francis Chantrey. Moore's poem is an 'Oriental Romance' in the manner of Byron or Scott. The beautiful youthful princess, the heroine Lallah Rookh, who reclines here on her divan in a pavilion (described in the prose that connects the sequence of Moore's verse narratives), is the youngest daughter of the Emperor Aurungzebe of Delhi; her name means 'tulip cheek'. Lallah Rookh is sent for in marriage by the Persian monarch of Bulcharia for his son and heir. On the return journey her boredom is relieved by the recitations of a young poet of Cashmere, 'graceful as Krishna', called Feramorz, who is shown here with his musical instrument: and was said to strike 'a few careless and melancholy chords on his kitar' (also called by Moore his lute or vina). The stories the young minstrel recites to her are the ghoulish 'Veiled Prophet of Khorassan', 'Paradise and the Peri', 'The Fire-Worshippers' and 'The Light of the Hareem'. Lallah Rookh falls deeply in love with the poet, who is revealed at the end of the book, as the new sovereign of Bucharia himself, Aliris, disguised as a humble poet, who has set out to win her love in this way. Turner has also depicted Lallah Rookh's female attendants, and seated to the right the ridiculous figure of her father's Great Chamberlain, Fadladeen, who has no time for poetry, preferring opium, and who sits with face averted. In the background is the minaret at Lahore described in their sojourn while on the road. Turner was invited (quite separately from this early commission) in 1836 to prepare vignette illustrations for engraving for a complete edition in 15 volumes of Moore's works, but only the Egyptian novella The Epicurean and its poetic version Alciphron were published in 1839, for an illustration to which, by Turner, see The Garden, Christie's, London, 5 June 2003, lot 80. The present watercolour was formerly in the collection of Sir Albert Richardson, Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy 1947-60. He was elected Associate 1936, Academician 1944 and President 1954-6. The main thrust behind his collecting was the preservation and restoration of buildings and architectural history. His collection of important architectural drawings was sold at Christie's, London 30 November 1983. I am grateful to Dr Jan Piggott for his help .
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The present watercolour belongs to a group of blue and grey wash views of the Lake District that Turner and Girtin executed in collaboration, probably after a composition by Edward Dayes, before they actually visited the Lake District. This drawing was made at a time when Turner and Girtin attended the drawing academy of Dr Monro. Joseph Farington, also associated with the academy wrote in his Diary of 11 November 1798: 'Girtin drew the outlines and Turner washed in the effects'. The present drawing may have been included in Dr Monro's sale, 26-28 June and 1 and 2 July 1833, lot 113 for example was described as 'twelve Views on the Lakes, &c., Indian ink'. Another view Looking south into Borrowdale, Lake District also executed in collaboration was sold in these Rooms, 28 November 2000, lot 138, dateable to circa 1795-6.
A. Wilton, 'The Monro School Question: Some Answers', Turner Studies, 4, no. 2, London, 1984, page. 19, plate. 26. with The Fry Gallery, London..
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