Turner Watercolors at Christies New York
Published December 7th, 2008
Christie’s have announced an extraordinary group of watercolors by the great 19th century British artist Joseph Mallord William Turner. The five watercolors, including four landscapes and one rare study of a woman’s face, will be among the highlights of Christie’s Important Old Master Paintings auction on January 28, 2009. The group comes from the estate of well-known art collectors and philanthropists William and Eleanor Wood Prince of Chicago, IL. The couple previously owned Turner’s masterpiece view of Venice, Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio, sold at Christie’s in 2006 for $35.8 million, the highest price ever achieved for an old master painting at auction in New York.
Viewed together, the five watercolors present a cross-section of Turner’s evolving style from an early Lake District view painted in collaboration with his contemporary Thomas Girtin to a majestic late-career painting of the Swiss Alps that is among his most admired creations. Three landscapes in the group bear the distinction of having been originally owned by John Ruskin, the Victorian-era art critic and collector who championed Turner’s distinctive style of landscape painting in his groundbreaking book Modern Painters.
A special preview of the Turner watercolors and other selections from the Wood Prince Collection will be held at Christie’s King Street galleries in London through December 10. A New York preview will follow, beginning on January 24 and leading up to the auction on January 28, 2009.
