Lot 99: Le Glorio, near Rio Janeiro, in the Brazils.

Thomas Lyde Hornbrook (1780-1850)
Le Glorio, near Rio Janeiro, in the Brazils.
inscribed as titled on the mount
watercolour on paper
8¾ x 10½in. (22.2 x 26.7cm.)

SOLD ON BEHALF OF THE SANDYCOMBE TRUST
(Lots 99-105 and 520)


Joseph Mallord William Turner began sketching and painting in and around Richmond in 1805, when he rented a riverside house (Syon Ferry House) in Old Isleworth. He appears to have continued to work from there until about 1812, when he began to build Solus Lodge in the St Margaret's area of Twickenham. 'The house was erected in the course of 1812; it was a modest villa-like construction of two storeys, with a basement for a small scullery and kitchen. At the centre of the house, between the dining room and the library, was Turner's studio filled with light. A serpentine staircase led to the two bedrooms on the first floor. There was a lily pond in the garden, and Turner planted a line of willow trees upon which he often gazed. Turner also ornamented the interior of the house with models of ships in glass cases, against which he painted the background of the sea. It was, in many respects, a perfect retreat.

At first Turner called it Solus Lodge, perhaps as testimony to the fact that he had finally parted from Sarah Danby. But the name was unwelcoming, and it was changed to Sandycombe Lodge.' (P. Ackroyd, Turner , London, 2006, pp.68-9.


The present owner of Sandycombe Lodge, Professor Harold Livermore, has set up the Sandycombe Trust with the intention of preserving the house for the nation.