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拍品专文
Many of Turner's watercolours have a deeply spiritual quality and his exhibited works were often accompanied by lengthy inscriptions or quotations. In this respect he resembled his namesake J.M.W. Turner who also regularly attached poems and other inscriptions to his paintings. The Highlanders' Burying Ground, shown in 1848, is one of Turner of Oxford's most dramatic compositions, and retains its original text. Like his other Scottish subjects, it must be based on studies executed during his one trip to the Highlands of 1838. The controlled handling of the watercolour, from saturated colour to the thinnest of transparent washes, contributes to the extraordinarily haunting quality of the image.
The relationship between text and image is of particular interest in this case. The text transcribed by the artist is, as he notes, from Anderson's Guide to the Highlands, but it is not from a copy of the guide Turner could have taken with him to Scotland in 1838. George and Peter Anderson's Guide to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland was first published in 1834, but in that edition the description of Loch Maree (on pp. 567-68) is brief and mainly concerned with the geology of the area. The passage used by Turner is from the revised edition of 1842. The latter text additionally includes the legend that the Loch is named after St Maree, a disciple of St Columba, from the early Christian settlement of Iona.
Turner has not included the holy well, but his portrayal of the ancient trees, gravestones, moss and ferns closely follows the Andersons' text. It seems likely that this picture is as much inspired by the folklore recounted in the 1842 Guide as by Turner's own observation of the area. As a resident of Oxford, the artist would have had ready access to libraries and bookshops and the new edition of Anderson's Guide must have caught his eye and given him fresh impetus to revisit his Scottish sketches. In the event, this magnificent watercolour was executed, ten years after he was in Scotland and exhibited in London soon after it was completed. It must have been Turner of Oxford's prime exhibit in 1848. The number '2' on the reverse may simply indicate that it was the second of the eleven pictures the artist showed that year.
The relationship between text and image is of particular interest in this case. The text transcribed by the artist is, as he notes, from Anderson's Guide to the Highlands, but it is not from a copy of the guide Turner could have taken with him to Scotland in 1838. George and Peter Anderson's Guide to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland was first published in 1834, but in that edition the description of Loch Maree (on pp. 567-68) is brief and mainly concerned with the geology of the area. The passage used by Turner is from the revised edition of 1842. The latter text additionally includes the legend that the Loch is named after St Maree, a disciple of St Columba, from the early Christian settlement of Iona.
Turner has not included the holy well, but his portrayal of the ancient trees, gravestones, moss and ferns closely follows the Andersons' text. It seems likely that this picture is as much inspired by the folklore recounted in the 1842 Guide as by Turner's own observation of the area. As a resident of Oxford, the artist would have had ready access to libraries and bookshops and the new edition of Anderson's Guide must have caught his eye and given him fresh impetus to revisit his Scottish sketches. In the event, this magnificent watercolour was executed, ten years after he was in Scotland and exhibited in London soon after it was completed. It must have been Turner of Oxford's prime exhibit in 1848. The number '2' on the reverse may simply indicate that it was the second of the eleven pictures the artist showed that year.