JMW Turner: letters to BG Windus


The following are complete letters, and two extracts, from the 17 letters by JMW Turner to BG Windus found by Dr Selby Whittingham in an album entitled In Memoriam Tottenham. 

The first letter in the collection is dated 10 June 1832 although whether there were earlier letters is unknown.

22 December 1834
My dear Sir
I have been endeavouring to be with you at Tottenham and today got myself ready and started but a damp sleet came on – which made me (owing  to a sad cold and swelld throat) give it up…
I am Dear Sir
yours most truly
JMW Turner

10 June 1832
My dear Sir
I beg to offer you and Mrs Windus my thanks for the invitation to Tottenham-Green to meet Mr and Mrs Griffiths on Tuesday next – but which I much fear will be out of my power – for I have an Engagement at Cowley tomorrow Monday – and most probably shall not be able to return before Tuesday Evening.
I am my dear Sir
your most truly obliged
JMW Turner
13 January 1836?
My dear Sir
Yes with very great pleasure – I will be with you on the B – D.  Many of them to yourself and Mrs Windus: – and with the Compts of the Season –
Believe me most
Yours faithfully
JMW Turner
Picture
Lake of Lucerne from Brunnen Indianapolis Museum of Art
8 January 1840
My dear Sir
Have the goodness to drop me a note stating that you consider me Engaged to dine with you on 15th (I think I am right in the day) and may I trouble you to give me permission to a Lady to see your Drawings who hesitating fearing a trespass without your concurrence therin.
Believe me most
Yours faithfully
JMW Turner

5 January 1841
My dear Sir
allow me to wish you and Mrs Windus the compliments of the Season and happy New Year and to thank you for the invitation to dine at Tottenham on your Birthday – the 15 Friday at 6 o’clock and I will with very geat pleasure accept and perform and hope Mr Jones will say yes likewise…
yours most truly
JMW Turner
“ He wrote few letters, and these were, like his conversation, abrupt, and referred little to art. The following, accepting an invitation to dine with his valued friend and patron, Mr. Windus, of Tottenham, on the occasion of his birthday, is characteristic : --
“‘My dear Sir, — Yes, with very great pleasure, I will be with you on the B D. Many of them to yourself and Mrs. Windus; and with the compliments of the season, believe me, “ ‘ Yours faithfully, “ ‘ J. M. W. Turner.’”
From: The life of J. M. W. Turner, R. A.; founded on letters and papers furnished by his friends and fellow academicians
This letter of 15 March 1842 from JMW Turner to BG Windus refers to  a falling out between patron and painter:
("...Your letter of Saturday last gave me much concern and pain in that I have caused you in any way such annoyance and most particularly so in your censure of my doing any more Drawings... The Sketches and Drawings therefrom are not at Mr Griffiths 'for sale to any one' neither did I suppose your refusal of them thereby, or have to conclude that my (professional) happiness is not to be consulted or considered in any manner and that I am also to be blamed or blessed alike either if I do work or do not work.../...

From The Windus Papers - Turner, Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites - sold at Bonhams on 24 March 2009