2 May 1812: The Otley origins of Turner’s oil of Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps in a snow storm, unveiled today to the public at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in London
Turner’s “Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps” (Turner 1812).
George Walter Thornbury. 1877. The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. London: Chatto and Windus. See also other editions. Get it:
.Excerpt
“One stormy day at Farnley,” says [Francis Hawkesworth], “Turner called to me loudly from the doorway, ‘Hawkey! Hawkey! Come here! come here! Look at this thunderstorm. Isn’t it grand? isn’t it wonderful? isn’t it sublime?’ All this time he was making notes of its form and colour on the back of a letter. I proposed some better drawing-block, but he said it did very well. He was absorbed – he was entranced. There was the storm rolling and sweeping and shafting out its lightning over the Yorkshire hills. Presently the storm passed, and he finished. ‘There! Hawkey,’ said he, ‘in two years you will see this again, and call it “Hannibal Crossing the Alps.”’”
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The exhibition opened on 2 May.
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Original
‘One stormy day at Farnley,’ says Mr. Fawkes, ‘Turner called to me loudly from the doorway, “Hawkey! Hawkey ! Come here! come here! Look at this thunder-storm. Isn’t it grand?-isn’t it wonderful?-isn’t it sublime?” All this time he was making notes of its form and colour on the back of a letter. I proposed some better drawing-block, but he said it did very well. He was absorbed-he was entranced. There was the storm rolling and sweeping and shafting out its lightning over the Yorkshire hills. Presently the storm passed, and he finished. “There! Hawkey,” said he. “In two years you will see this again, and call it “Hannibal Crossing the Alps.”’
117 words.
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- Drawing (3)
· - 📌Farnley Hall (5), stately home on the Wharfe near Otley, built in Elizabethan times by the Danbys, but the manor is in Domesday Book as Fernelei ·
- George Walter Thornbury (2) ·
- Hawkesworth, Francis (1796-1871) (1), Turner's "Hawkey," heir of Walter Fawkes of Farnley Hall ·
- Landscape art (4) ·
- Lightning (6) ·
- Otley Chevin (2) ·
- Painting (6) ·
- Royal Academy of Arts (1) ·
- Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (1) ·
- Snow (17) ·
- Somerset House (1) ·
- Thunderstorm (5) ·
- Turner, J.M.W. (1775-1851) (5), Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist ·
- Walter Fawkes (3) ·
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