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Lot Essay
This watercolour, Turner's only illustration to John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, was engraved by Edward Goodall as the frontispiece to the edition of the text published by Fisher, Son and Co. in 1836 (W.G. Rawlinson, The Engraved Works of J.M.W. Turner R.A., II, London, 1913, pp. 204, 315, no. 605). It illustrates the conclusion of Part Two, when Greatheart led a group of Pilgrims including Christiana to the River dividing Beulah from the Celestial City. Here she was approached by a Messenger with 'an Arrow with a Point sharpened with Love, let easily into her Heart' as a token of her imminent death and passing over the River. Given Bunyan's Puritan nature, Turner's imagery is strangely traditional with its allusions to St Michael and to the Madonna and Child, presumably derived from his knowledge of Italian Catholic art.
Sir Walter Armstrong gives a muddled reference to what may be this work: 'Vignette. Figure stretching out arms to a cross, lost in a blaze of light. Probably Turner's last work for the engraver.' This seems to be based on Armstrong's mistaken belief that Fisher's edition was first published in 1847, it is also Armstrong that provides the tentative early provenance.
Sir Walter Armstrong gives a muddled reference to what may be this work: 'Vignette. Figure stretching out arms to a cross, lost in a blaze of light. Probably Turner's last work for the engraver.' This seems to be based on Armstrong's mistaken belief that Fisher's edition was first published in 1847, it is also Armstrong that provides the tentative early provenance.