Joseph Mallord William Turner
A Distant View over Chambéry, from the North, with Storm Clouds

Public Domain

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Artist Joseph Mallord William TurnerBritish, 1775–1851

CultureBritish

Titles

A Distant View over Chambéry, from the North, with Storm Clouds

Date1836

MediumWatercolor on wove paper, squared

DimensionsImage/sheet: 9 3/4 × 10 3/4 in. (24.8 × 27.3 cm)

Credit LineThe Stuart Collection, museum purchase funded by Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer in honor of the past presidents and members of the Houston Art League, the Museum’s founding organization

Object number2020.404

Not on view

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Department

Prints and Drawings

Object Type

DRAWINGS, PASTELS & WATERCOLORS

ProvenanceThe artist, 1836; art market, Europe, later 1850s1; John Edward Taylor (British, 1830—1905) 2; his sale, London, Christie’s, 8 July, 1912, lot 107 (as A Mountainous Landscape, a town seen in a valley, in the middle distance)3; bought by Horace Gibbs, 1912; Mrs Willard Straight (née Dorothy Payne Whitney, later Mrs. Leonard K. Elmhirst)4, acquired from or through Horace Gibbs, in 1912; in Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight Elmhirst’s collection, 1912-1942; possibly transferred to the Westbury Holding Company for sale, 1942; [New York, Elmhirst collection sale, Kende Galleries at Gimbel Bros., 28, May, 1942, lot 190]5; [Vose Galleries, Boston, MA]; Mrs. Robert B. Choate, Danvers, MA (1900-1987), by 1946-19836; [London, Leger Galleries, 1983-1984]; [London, Christie’s, Important English Drawings and Watercolours, “The Property of a Lady,” 10 July 1984, lot 238, ill. (as “View over an Alpine Valley, probably Val d’Aosta)]; private collection, acquired from the above, 1984; by descent, 2018; [London, Libson Yarker Ltd, 2019-2020]; purchased by the MFAH, 2020

1 Most of Turner’s personal studies are now in his bequest at Tate Britain, London. His traveling companion, Munro, provided short reports of the journey to John Ruskin in 1857 and Walter Thornbury by 1862. The Ruskin-Munro correspondence reveals that some of his watercolor sketches from this period came onto the market in the later 1850s via a foreign dealer, but there is no more precise information.
2 John Edward Taylor was the son of John Edward Taylor (1791-1844), the business tycoon, editor/publisher of The Portico Library and founder of the Manchester Guardian newspaper in 1821 (renamed in 1959 as The Guardian). He lived at 20 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, England. He became the proprietor of The Manchester Guardian, after his father’s death. Taylor studied in Bonn, Germany (1848-1849), published a translation of Grimms’ Fairy Tales in 1846 and Basile’s Il Pentamerone in 1847. He collected British watercolors and in 1892 gave a large number of works to the Whitworth Institute, Manchester (now the Whitworth Art Gallery. He was a keen collector of J.M.W. Turner’s works, buying first from Agnew’s in the 1860s, and many of Turner’s watercolors are located in the following collections: Tate Britain, National Gallery of Victoria, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
3 Catalogue of the highly important collection of drawings by J.M.W. Turner, works by old masters and modern pictures & drawings, formed by the late John Edward Taylor, which (by order of the trustees) will be sold by auction by Christie, Manson & Woods ... on Friday, July 5, and Monday, July 9, 1912. ([London, 1912]), inscribed in cursive next to lot number in the sales catalogue, “Gibbs,” for 1100 gns.). The sold price of 1100 guineas for this watercolor was one of the highest achieved in the sale of Taylor’s renowned group of Turner watercolors.
4Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight Elmhirst (1887̶ 1968) was an American-born social activist, philanthropist, publisher and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She was the daughter of Flora (née Payne) and William Collins Whitney, the US Secretary of the Navy during the first Cleveland administration from 1885-1889. She was one of the wealthiest women in America in the early 20th century and supported women’s trade unions and educational and charitable organizations. She became the first president of the Association of Junior Leagues International in 1921. She was also a feminist, benefactor of the arts, pacifist, and for social and labor reform. She was married in 1911 to Willard Dickerman Straight (1880-1918). Her second marriage in 1925 was to Leonard Knight Elmhirst (1893-1974). She was known for founding The New Republic, the Willard Straight Hall at Cornell University, the William C. Whitney Foundation and the Dartington College of Arts. She also owned the watercolor of the Val d’Aosta looking over Sallanches (lot 63) from the Taylor sale, which had been one of Agnew’s purchases and now located in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Fig. 14. Photograph of Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight Elmhirst (1887̶ 1968), Between 1910-1915

5 This auction has a printed catalogue with a softcover 102 page 7 1/4"x10 ½." The auction catalog reads, "Kende Galleries at Gimbel Brothers, 33rd Street and Broadway, New York-11th Floor, February, 1942", Valuable Paintings-Important Silver-Rugs-Furniture-Chinese Art-Property of The Westbury Holding Corporation collected by Mrs. Leonard K. Elmhirst (Mrs. Willard D. Straight)-The Former Miss Dorothy Payne Whitney.
6 Elizabeth Robbins Choate (1900-1987) was the widow of Robert B. Choate, former publisher of the Boston Herald Traveler Corporation and she was a sportswoman and breeder and trainer of Sealyham terriers at Robin Hill Farm in Danvers, Massachusetts. She was the winner of two national championships at the Westminster Dog Shows in the late 1930s.

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

None noted.

No watermark visible. Other watercolors from this 1836 trip have the watermark: B,E / 182

Catalogue raisonnésee above

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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