Farnley Hall Bird Book by Turner

Acquisition of set of twenty watercolour bird studies, probably executed by Turner during his second visit to Farnley Hall, the home of Walter Fawrkes in 1810. Fawkes had been Turner's ,ost important patron since about 1803 and had bought a considerable number of his watercolours and oil paintings. Turner agreed to provide Fawkes with the illustrations for his book of ornithology and recorded, in the last year of his life, that the studies had been pasted into an album together with a selection of feathers from each bird illustrated. The feathers were separated from the drawings in 1850 as they were damaging the studies.