In a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-03-24 - 2023-12-03)Turner's Modern World (Kimbell Art Museum, 2021-10-17 - 2022-02-06)Turner's Modern World (Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 2022-03-27 - 2022-07-10)The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26)Turner and the Sea (National Maritime Museum, 2013-11-22 - 2014-04-21)Turner and the Sea (The Peabody Essex Museum, 2014-05-31 - 2014-09-01)An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27)J. M. W. Turner - NGA (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008-06-23 - 2008-09-21)Art and Music in Britain: Four Encounters, 1730-1900 (Yale Center for British Art, 2006-10-05 - 2006-12-31)Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-09-27 - 2001-12-30)Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2002-02-01 - 2002-05-05)Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825-1861 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-09-11 - 2001-01-07)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)Making and Meaning - Turner's fighting Temeraire (The National Gallery, London, 1995-07-05 - 1995-10-01)Fairest Isle - The Appreciation of British Scenery 1750-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1989-04-12 - 1989-06-25)
Publications:
Acquisitions : The First Decade 1977-1986 : Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1986, pp. 6, 8, 19, no. 53, pl. 8, N590.2 .A7 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Art, Lux, et Veritas, 2011 : Personal Responses to Collections at Yale, , Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 2011, pp. 24-27, no. V, V2414:1 (YCBA)Anthony Bailey, Standing in the sun : a life of J. M. W. Turner, , Sinclair-Stevenson, London, 1997, p. 276, no. 347, NJ18 T85 B35 1997 (YCBA)Timothy J. Barringer, Art & music in Britain : four encounters, 1730-1900 (exhibition and label text), , New Haven, 2006, [p. 4], V 1699:1 (YCBA)Timothy J. Barringer, Art & music in Britain : four encounters, 1730-1900, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2006, pp. 23, 26-27, 28, V 1699 (YCBA)Timothy J. Barringer, Unto this last : two hundred years of John Ruskin, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2019, p. 204, fig. 101, NJ18.R895 .B37 2019 (LC) Oversize (YCBA)John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 32, 33, 285, no. 91, fig. 6, pl. 91, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)John Baskett, Staffa, Fingal's Cave by J.M.W. Turner, , Accessed October 21, 2022, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOYcmGoc3AMBritish Art Purchases in New York and a Forthcoming Charity Sale in London, Illustrated London News, vol. 229, October 27, 1956, p. 713, Gale Primary Sources : Illustrated London News Historical ArchiveDavid Blayney Brown, J. M. W. Turner : Painting Set Free, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2014, p. 144, fig, 44, NJ18.T85 J1552 2014 OVERSIZE (YCBA)David Blayney Brown, The art of J.M.W. Turner, Headline Book Publishing, London, 1990, pp. 138-139, NJ18 T85 B79 1990 + (YCBA)David Blayney Brown, Turner's Modern World, Tate Publishing, London, 2020, p. 176, no. 131, NJ18.T85 A12 2020a Oversize (YCBA)Martin Butlin, The paintings of J.M.W. Turner, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, 1984, p.193, 198-199, 203, 285 (v.1), 350, 565 (v. 2), no. 347, pl. 350, 565, NJ18 T85 B885 1984 OVERSIZE (YCBA)David Cordingly, Turner and the Sea, Turner Society News, no. 121, Spring 2014, p. 25, NJ18 T85 T86 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 226-227, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)Gabriele Crepaldi, Turner, Prestel, Munich ; London, 2011, pp. 102-103, NJ18.T85 C75 2011 (YCBA)Megan Cullen, Fairest isle : the appreciation of British scenery, 1750-1850 : [exhibition] label copy. Yale Center for British Art, April 12-June 25, 1989., , Yale Center for British Art, [New Haven, 1989, p. 67, no. 152, ND1354.4 F351 1989 (YCBA)Lindsay Duguid, The Recollected Works, TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, , November 8, 2007, p, 17, Gale Primary Sources : Times Literary Supplement Historical ArchiveJudy Egerton, Turner : the Fighting Temeraire, , National Gallery Publications, London, 1995, pp. 68-69, pl. 48, NJ18 T85 E34 1995 (YCBA)Exhibition Catalogue. 1832. 64th., Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, no. 64, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1832, p. 26, no. 453, N5054 A53 v. 3 (YCBA)Exhibition of the Royal Academy, Library of the Fine Arts, vol. 3:17, June 1832, p. 508, British PeriodicalsJohn Gage, Collected correspondence of J. M. W. Turner : With an early diary and a memoir by George Jones, , Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1980, p. 209, NJ18 T85 A2 1980 (YCBA)John Gage, J.M.W. Turner : "A wonderful range of mind", Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1987, p. 202, , fig. 279, NJ18 T85 G36 (LC) (YCBA)John Gage, The Distinctness of J.M.W. Turner, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, vol. 123, 1975, pp. 448-457, U10 R81j (LSF)John Gage, Turner: Rain, steam, and speed., Viking Press, New York, 1972, p. 43, NJ18 T85 A15 R35 1972 (YCBA)Marco Goldin, Turner e gli impressionisti : la grande storia del paesaggio moderno in Europa, , Linea d'ombra srl, Conegliano [Italy], 2006, p. 58, ND192.I4 T87 2006 + (YCBA)Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p. 67, ND466 .G67 (YCBA)Louis Hawes, Turner's Fighting Temeraire, Art Quarterly, Vol. 31, Spring 1972, p. 33, fig. 10, V 2084 (YCBA)Adele M. Holcomb, Indistinctness is my fault: A letter about Turner from C.R. Leslie to James Lenox, Burlington Magazine, v. 114, August 1972, pp. 557-58, fg. 58, N1 B87 + (YCBA)J. M. W. Turner : der Maler des Lichts, , Gebr. Mann, Berlin, 1972, pp. 46-48, 113, No. 17, pl. 14, NJ18 T85 J15 (YCBA)Evelyn Joll, The Oxford companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford University Press, Oxford New York, 2001, p. 308, NJ18 O84 2001 (YCBA)Charlotte Klonk, Prospects for the Nation : recent essays in British landscape, 1750-1880, , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1997, pp. 219-220, fig. 82, ND1354.4 P76 1997 (YCBA)Charlotte Klonk, Science and the perception of nature : British landscape art in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, , Yale University Press, New Haven, 1996, p. 86, fig. 57, ND1354.4 K56 1996 (YCBA)Jeremy Lewison, Turner, Monet, Twombly : later paintings, , Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2011, pp. 58, 59, fig. 35, NJ18.T85 L53 2011 Oversize (YCBA)Michael Lloyd, Turner, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1996, pp. 46, 53-54, NJ18 T85 L57 1996 + (YCBA)Edward Lockspeiser, Music and painting : a study in comparative ideas from Turner to Schoenberg, , Harper & Row, New York, 1973, ML3849 L62 1973 (HAAS)Katherine Manthorne, Creation & renewal : views of Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church, , Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1985, p. 27, NJ18 C47 M35 + (HAAS)Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, pp. 148-149, no. 60, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)Ian McKeever, The Staffa Project : published to coincide with the exhibition of new works by Ian McKeever & Thomas Joshua Cooper organised by the Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, , Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston [Lancashire], 1987, p. 28, NX653 S7 S72 (YCBA)James R. Mellow, Transcendental Admirers: Turner's American Friends, ART News, vol. 79, December 1980, pp. 80-83, N1 A6 OVERSIZE (HAAS)Jennifer Davis Michael, Ocean Meets Ossian : Staffa as Romantic Symbol, , Romanticism, vol. 13, 2007, pp. 1-15, fig. 2, Academic Search PremierSebastian Mitchell, Celtic Postmodernism : Ossian and Contemporary Art, , Translation and Literature, vol. 22, November 2013, pp. 406-408, 435, fig. 2, Available online (Orbis) Edinburgh Unisersity PressFranny Moyle, Turner : The Extraordinary Life and Momentous Times of J.M.W. Turner, Penguin Books, New York, 2016, pp. 379-380, NJ18 T85 M79 2016 (YCBA)Thomas E. Norton, 100 years of collecting in America : the story of Sotheby Parke Bernet, , Harry N. Abrams, New York, NY, 1984, p. 164, N8660 S681 N67 (YCBA)Frederic Ogee, Turner : les paysages absolus, , Hazan, Paris, 2010, pp. 376-377, NJ18 T85 O34 2010 (YCBA)Paul Mellon's legacy : a passion for British art : April 18-July 29, 2007, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn., 2007, p. 14, V 1735 (YCBA)Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Christiana Payne, Where the sea meets the land : artists on the coast in nineteenth century Britain, artists on the coast in nineteenth century Britain , Sansom & Co., Bristol, UK, 2007, pp. 122-123, fig, 63, ND1373 G7 P38 2007 (YCBA)Graham Reynolds, Turner, Thames & Hudson, London, 2020, fig. 134, NJ18.T85 R49 2020 (YCBA)Christine Riding, Turner & the sea, Thames & Hudson, London, 2013, pp. 4-5. 18, 211, 241, 242, 252-253, 261, 270, 272, no. 128, NJ18.T85 R52 2013 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Christine Riding, Turner on Tour, National Gallery Global, London, London, 2022, pp. 24, 25, fig. 12, NJ18 T85 R53 2022 (YCBA)Duncan Robinson, Acquisitions : The First Decade 1977 - 1986, , Burlington Magazine, vol. 128, October 1986, pp. 6, 9,19, no. 53, pl. 8, N1 .B87 128:3 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Duncan Robinson, Fairest isle : the appreciation of British scenery, 1750-1850, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1989, p. 19, no. 152, ND1354.4 F35 (YCBA)William S. Rodner, J.M.W. Turner : Romantic painter of the Industrial Revolution, , University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1997, pp. 3, 61, 64, 66-70, 72, 82, 103, 117, 146-147, 156, pl. 4, ND497 T85 R63 1997 (YCBA)Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, Romantic gardens : nature, art, and landscape design, , The Morgan Library & Museum, New York Boston New York, 2010, p. 27, fig. 17, SB451 R638 2010 + (YCBA)Lindsay Rothwell, Paul Mellon's legacy : an American's passion for British art : Sackler Wing of Galleries, 20 October 2007 - 27 January 2008 : an introduction to the exhibition for teachers and students., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 2007, pp. 9-10, no. 91, V 2038 (YCBA)Nancy Scott, America's First Public Turner : How Ruskin sold The Slave Ship to New York, , British Art Journal, vol. 10, Winter/Spring 2009-2010, pp. 69, 71, fig. 3, N6761 B74 + (YCBA)Sam Smiles, J.M.W. Turner, Tate Publishing, London, 2000, pp. 55-56, no. 44, ND497 T85 S57 (YCBA)Sam Smiles, The late works of J. M. W. Turner : the artist and his critics, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 2020, p. 98, fig. 44, NJ18.t85 S655 2020 Oversize (YCBA)David H. Solkin, Art on the Line : the Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836, , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2001, p. 152, N5054 A78 2001B (YCBA)Staffa, Fingal's Cave, off the West Coast of Scotland (Art Reproduction), Apollo, v. 64, December 1956, p. 165, J10 Ap43 + (SML)Staffa, Fingal's Cave, off the West Coast of Scotland (Art Reproduction), Connoisseur, v. 138, January 1957, p. 261, J10 C762 + (SML)Staffa, Fingal's Cave, off the West Coast of Scotland, Arts Magazine, vol. 31, October 1956, p. 9, N1 A415 OVERSIZE (HAAS)Tate Britain, Turner, 1775-1851, Tate Britain, London, 1974, p. 136, no. 490, NJ18 T85 T36+ (YCBA) Also available on Microfiche, Fiche B236Thomas Gibson Fine Art Advisory Services, [ London ], 1978, pp. [ 6-7 ], Not available at YaleJoyce H. Townsend, How Turner Painted: Materials & Techniques, Thames & Hudson, London, 2019, p. 105, NJ18.T85 T642 2019 (LC) (YCBA)Catherine Hoover Voorsanger, Art and the Empire City : New York, 1825-1861, , Yale University Press, New York and New Haven, 2000, no. 49, N6535 N5 A28X 2000 + Oversize (HAAS)David Wallace-Hadrill, Turner in Argyll in 1831: Inveraray to Oban, Turner Studies, vol. 11, Summer 1991, pp. 20-29, NJ18 T85 T87 + (YCBA)S. Warburton, Staffa, Lonely Isle for Inspiration, Turner Society News, 1979, pp. 2-5, NJ18 T85 T86 + (YCBA)Malcolm Warner, Great British paintings from American collections : Holbein to Hockney, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, pp. 174-175, no. 51, ND464 W27 2001 (YCBA)Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner : the making of a master, Tate Publishing, London, 2013, pp. 60, 65, fig. 31, NJ18.T85 T3652 2013 (YCBA)Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner, Tate Publishing, London, 2007, pp.20, 144-145, 236, 240, no. 102, NJ18 T85 A12 2007 + (YCBA)John Wilmerding, Essays in honor of Paul Mellon, collector and benefactor : Essays, , National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC & Hanover, NH, 1986, pp. 259-260, fig. 2, N7442.2 M455 1986 (YCBA)Andrew Wilton, American sublime : landscape painting in the United States, 1820-1880, , Tate Publishing, London, UK, 2002, pp. 246-247, no. 51, ND1351.5 W57 2002 (YCBA)Andrew Wilton, The life and work of J.M.W. Turner, Academy Editions, London, 1979, pp. 197, 280, no. P347, pl. 213, NJ18 T85 +W577 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
J. M. W. Turner visited the remote island of Staffa, off the west coast of Scotland, in 1831 to visit the famous cavern of basalt rock known as Fingal’s Cave. He made the six-mile voyage by steamship and later claimed that a storm erupted during his return to land, recalling a moment when “the sun getting towards the horizon, burst through the raincloud, angry.” Whether an invented memory or not, Turner’s painting represents just such an incident with a steamship battling a storm off Staffa, the feeble light of its engine almost overcome by the sublime forces of nature, a contrast that seems to imply the frailty of human civilization. The painting was well received when it was exhibited in 1832 but remained with the artist until 1845, when it was purchased on behalf of James Lenox, a collector from New York, becoming the first Turner to enter an American collection. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Provenance:
Created by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), the artist, exhibited 1832 [1] [a]; from whom purchased by Charles Robert Leslie RA (1794–1859), August 1845 [2] for James Lenox (1800–1880) [3] [4] [b], of New York; by whom given to the Lenox Library by 1870 [c]; acquired at auction by Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, at Parke-Bernet Galleries, 980 Madison Avenue, New York, October 17, 1956 (lot 39, ‘Staffa, Fingal's Cave’), in “Notable Paintings. Works by XVIII-XIX century artists; Dutch, Flemish & other early masters” [d]; purchased by Gavin Astor, second Baron Astor of Hever (1918–1984) [5], of Hever Castle, Kent, England, 1956 [e]; purchased by Thomas Gibson Fine Art, Ltd., London, January 1978 [f]; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907–1999), 1978 [g]; by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, December 1978. Notes: --- [1] Though exhibited upon its completion in 1832 at the Royal Academy (no. 453), the painting remained with the artist in his studio until 1845. --- [2] Charles Robert Leslie RA (1794–1859) was a painter and a friend of the artist and of James Lennox, for whom he purchased this painting from the artist directly. --- [3] James Lennox (1800–1880) was an American philanthropist and collector. Following his purchase of this painting, he collected at least one other work by the artist, the oil Fort Vimieux (1831), which was also sold at auction at Parke-Bernet Galleries together with this painting in 1956. Lenox amassed one of the greatest private collections of books and other objects in what would be established as the Lenox Library in 1870 between 70th and 71st Streets along Fifth Avenue, New York City (the building for the library was completed in 1877 and included galleries for paintings from Lenox’s collection; the site would later become home to the Frick Collection). In 1895, Lenox Library was consolidated with the Tilden Trust and the Astor Library to become the New York Public Library. Adele M. Holcomb states that Lenox bequeathed the painting to the New York Public Library via Lennox Library following his death in 1880, where it remained until sold at auction by Parke-Bernet Galleries in 1956. --- [4] A catalogue guide to the paintings on view at his Lenox Library in 1879 and 1889 list no. 34 as Staffa, Fingal’s Cave with an excerpt of a letter from the artist to Lenox describing the occasion for the painting’s subject matter and noting that the work was purchased by Leslie for Lenox in August 1845. --- [5] Gavin Astor, second Baron Astor of Hever (1918–1984) was an English peer and member of the House of Lords, and the eldest son and heir of Lieutenant-Colonel John Jacob Astor V, first Baron Astor of Hever (1886–1971), who had earlier acquired Port Ruysdael, also in the YCBA collection, by 1946. The Astor family held possession of Hever Castle in Kent from 1903 until 1983; the estate was famous for its art collection. According to John Baskett, Paul Mellon’s art advisor, this painting was hung at Hever Castle while in Gavin Astor’s possession. Several labels on the stretcher bar lists The Hon. Gavin Astor as the owner and lender of this painting to different exhibitions, including Tate Gallery and Arts Council Gallery’s ‘The Romantic Movement: Fifth Exhibition to Celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the Council of Europe’, in London, 1959; The British Council’s 18th and 19th Century British Painting, 1966–67 (no. 59); and Agnew’s 150th Anniversary Exhibition of Paintings and Watercolors by J. M. W. Turner in London, 1967. Citations: --- [a] John Baskett, Paul Mellon’s Legacy: A Passion for British Art (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2007), pl 91, p. 285. --- [b] Charles Robert Leslie, Autobiographical Recollections by the late Charles Robert Leslie, R.A., ed. Tom Taylor (London: J. Murray, 1860), pg. 205–08. --- [c] “A guide to the paintings and sculptures exhibited to the public,” Lenox Library, New York, 1879 and 1889, p. 8. --- [d] Notable Paintings, Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, October 17, 1956. https://search.library.yale.edu/catalog/1679138 --- [e] Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J. M. W. Turner, rev. ed. (New Haven: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Tate Gallery, Yale University Press, 1984), 198–99. --- [f] Ibid --- [g] Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 226-227 ---