Irish Arts Review

Winter's GiftAuthor(s): Anne HodgeSource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter, 2004), pp. 70-71Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25503115 .

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^B EXHIBITIONS WINTER'S GIFT

Winter's Gift ANNE HODGE discusses the background to the Vaughan Bequest as the National Gallery of

Ireland prepares its annual New Year exhibition of Turner watercolours

1 Storm at the

Mouth of the Grand

Canal, Venice

C.1840 watercolour on paper 22 x 32cm

NGI 2426 (Courtesy NGI)

2 J M W Turner

(1775-1851) The

West Gate,

Canterbury, Kent

C.1793 pencil and

watercolour on

paper 28 x 20.3cm

NGI 2408

(Courtesy NGI)

On 25 January 1900, a resolution was passed by the

Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery

of Ireland which 'gratefully accepted' Henry

Vaughan's bequest of thirty-one drawings1 by

JMW Turner RA. The Gallery undertook to 'comply with the

conditions laid down by Mr Vaughans will for the management

and exhibition of the said drawings'.2

The watercolours first went on display in the Gallery in

January 1901. They were displayed on screens in the 'large

gallery' (the room directly above the present day Shaw Room).

This exhibition followed on directly from a major retrospective show of

works by Sir Frederic William Burton, who had died in 1900. A memo

records that: 'both the exhibitions

besides being successful in themselves,

tended also to make the permanent col

lection in the Gallery more widely

known and appreciated, many persons,

residents in Dublin, having visited the

Gallery for the first time'.3

Vaughan's watercolours came to

Dublin in a specially-designed wooden cabinet fitted with remov

able frames. His will states that the drawings should be: 'exhib

ited to the public and copied subject to the same rules and

regulations as the drawings by Turner R.A. are subjected at the

Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge and in addition that the draw

ings be exhibited to the public all at one time free of charge dur

ing the month of January'.4

The Turner drawings referred to by Vaughan were given to the

Fitzwilliam by John Ruskin in 1861. To ensure their long-term

preservation Ruskin gave instructions that his watercolours

should be stored in a special cabinet and only shown to those

'really interested in art'!

Henry Vaughan was born in Southwark, London in 1809. His

father, a hat manufacturer, died in 1828 leaving a great fortune.

This inheritance allowed Vaughan to travel and he became a culti

vated collector of art, gradually building up a magnificent collection.

He patronised living artists, most notably J MW Turner, whose pic

tures he bought directly from Thomas Griffiths, the artist's agent

Throughout his life Vaughan was philanthropic but it was on his

death that his true generosity became apparent He died unmarried

on the 26th of November 1899 aged ninety. He divided his wealth

between various medical charities while his art collection was dis

tributed among the major public museums. The British Museum

received over 500 items including 51 Old Master drawings, some

300 drawings by British artists, and nearly 100 proofs of Turner's

Liber Studiorum print series. Mr Vaughan's will bequeathed the

remainder of his Turner prints and his collections of Constable mez

zotints and Rembrandt etchings to University College London. The

bulk of his outstanding and scholarly collection of Turner water

colours was divided between the National Gallery of Scotland

(thirty-eight works) and the National Gallery of Ireland.

The thirty-one works bequeathed to Dublin consist of twenty

four watercolours, one pencil drawing, and 6 monochrome draw

ings in pencil and wash. It is a representative collection and

includes a number of excellent early works. These early drawings

like The West Gate, Canterbury (Fig 2) are accurate yet lively record

ings of actual places. The remainder span Turner's mature career

and include highly finished watercolours later engraved for his

Picturesque Views of the Southern Coast of England series and evoca

. tive sketches from his later tours in Switzerland and Italy. They give

a real sense of his development as an artist, his enthusiasm for land

scape and his experimentation with the watercolour medium. Storm

at the mouth of the Grand Canal, Venice, c.1840 (Fig 1), shows

Turner's skill at evoking the changing effects of the weather. This

sketch is notable for its impressionistic simplicity?the canal side

buildings are rendered using just a few red lines while an ominous

rain-cloud, a washy blue mass, dominates the scene.

The Gallery continues to fulfil the conditions of Vaughan's

Bequest. This year the Print Gallery exhibition will focus on

Turner's life-long passion for the sea. Nearly three-quarters of the

NGI collection are seascapes. From his childhood holidays in

Margate on the south coast of England to his frequent trips as a

mature artist to Venice, Turner constantly returned to the theme

of the sea. The Vaughan bequest watercolours and drawings will

be supplemented by eight dramatic mezzotint engravings from his

famous Liber Studiorum series. As always, the exhibition opens on

New Year's Day and remains open until 31 January. Admission is.

free and all are welcome.

ANNE HODGE is Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Ireland.

1 In thel9th century topographical watercolours were commonly referred to as

'drawings'. 2 National Gallery of Ireland Board Meeting Minutes of 25 January, 1900.

3 Memo dated February 21 1901 in the Gallery's Minute Book 1873-1915.

4 Extract from Henry Vaughan's Bequest, copy in the National Gallery of

Ireland's Archives.

70 [RISH ARTS REVIEW WINTER 2004

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