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SPEAKINGOFTURNER In relation to theVaughanBequest Collection, annually displayed in theScottishNational Gallery, Edinburgh (Scotland) during themonthof January. The reputationof JosephMallordWilliamTurner asBritain’s most celebrated artist has enjoyed a hugeboost in the last fewmonths, with the success of the recentmovieMr. Turner, directedbyMike Leigh and ablockbuster exhibition of the artist’s lateworks at TateBritain in London. But for Turner fans, the annual exhibitionof the superbwatercolours bequeathed in 1900bySir Henry Vaughan has been amuch- loved tradition at theScottishNational Gallery inEdinburgh formore than a century. Vaughanwas a London art collector with apassion for Turner, whoput together a groupof works that encapsulates the artist’s entire career, choosing eachwith a connoisseur’s eye for quality. He stipulated that thesedelicateworks shouldbe ‘exhibited to thepublic all at one time, free of charge, only during the lastmonthof January’, to limit their exposure to strongdaylight andbring awelcome injectionof light and colour during thedarkest monthof the year. ABrief Overviewof HenryVaughan Henry Vaughan (1809-1899) was one of themost distinguished andgenerous of Victorian collectors. He lived inLondon, andwhen he just twenty-one he inherited a fortune fromhis father, who hadbeen awealthy hat maker. Vaughanwas one of themost discerning andpublic- spiritedof Victorian connoisseur-collectors. He enjoyed the life of a gentlemanof leisure and usedhiswealth to travel across Europe and acquireworks of art, but was also aphilanthropist who supported a number of charitable projects. His rich anddiverse collection ranged from medieval stainedglass topaintings anddrawings by his contemporaries. Themost important earlyworks he acquired weredrawings byMichelangelo, Raphael, Rubens and Rembrandt, which are now in theBritishMuseum. However, it was above all eighteenth and nineteenth-centuryBritish art that came todominate his interests. Themost famous oil paintingVaughanbought was JohnConstable’s TheHay- Wain , whichhepresented to theNational Gallery in London. Vaughanprobablymet Turner in the 1840s andbuilt a remarkable collectionof his drawings andwatercolours which spanned the artist’s entire career, andonly included works in fine condition. Throughout his life, Turnermade many thousands of pencil drawings –often slight studies that would establish the structure of a viewor composition. Thesewere thenused indoors, either inhis London studio, or, for example, in a hotel room inVenice, as thebasis for more fully developedwatercolours andoil paintings.Many of the thirty-eight watercolours in theVaughanbequest reveal Turner quickly trying to capture a structure or effect, while others concentrate on colour relationships rather than actual scenery. J.M.W. Turner LagoCoruisk, Skye LochCoruisk, Skye , 1831-4 ScottishNational Gallery 51