TURNER (JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM)

A group of 4 items belonging to JMW Turner (4)

Footnotes

ONE OF ONLY TWO KNOWN PAIRS OF TURNER'S SPECTACLES. These spectacles were made by Benz and bought from the London opticians, Stanley Pearce. The other pair, saved by John Ruskin, is in the collection of the Ashmolean and has been on loan to Tate Britain since 1987.

The prescriptions of the two pairs of spectacles differ; the present pair measure –2.50 for both the left and right lenses whereas the Ashmolean pair measure +3 and +4. The consultant ophthalmic surgeon James McGill has studied Turner's work, and believes his eyesight was a –3, suggesting he used the present glasses for long distance vision and the Ashmolean pair in later life for reading, painting and other close work.

The right lens of the present glasses also measures a stigmatism of –0.25 X 43. Turner may have had a stigmatism, argues Patrick Trevor-Roper, citing an 1872 paper to the Royal Institution where it is suggested that "the distortion which accompanied the blurring, along with the overall reddening (in Turner's watercolours), were due to a secondary astigmatism that... a sclerosis of the lens may induce" (The World Through Blunted Sight, 1988, p.92).

The present relics all come from the collection of Maria Tanner, who cleaned Turner's studio on Queen Anne Street in Chelsea. She worked for his housekeeper, Hannah Danby, and the two women lived together in Turner's house after his death in 1851. In his will, Turner appointed Hannah Danby as "Custodian and Keeper of the Pictures House and Premises 47 Queen Anne Street" and left her £150 to keep the Gallery "in a viewable state at all times." In turn, Hannah Danby mentioned Maria Tanner in her own will, dated 7 December 1853.

Exhibited: Tate Britain, 1979-2003, where described as "associated with J.M.W. Turner."

Provenance: Mrs Maria Tanner; by descent to her children, Mr Tanner and his sister, Mrs Parkes, 29 Hercules Road Lambeth; purchased in 1906 by John and Emma Carpenter (b.1856), née Towle, of Plymouth; a gift to her brother, Samuel and Emma Towle, née Trevor; by descent to Grace Emma Bradley, née Towle (d.1977); by descent to Gwendoline Helen Trevor Bradley (b.1909); by descent to her godson, cousin and executor; sold by them, Sotheby's, 27 November 2003, lot 16; UK private collection.