'Lincoln: The Western Towers of the Cathedral, with Exchequer Gate Seen from Bailgate', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Lincoln: The Western Towers of the Cathedral, with Exchequer Gate Seen from Bailgate

From Drawings Made on the Midland Tour

Date 1794

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 275 x 211 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D00342

Turner Bequest XXI O

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Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Lincoln: The Western Towers of the Cathedral, with Exchequer Gate Seen from Bailgate 1794

D00342
Turner Bequest XXI O

Pencil on white wove paper, 275 x 211 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Horner | Cabinet Maker’ on building towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXI O’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Exhibition history

References

This was used as the basis for the finished watercolour, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1795 (British Museum, London; Henderson collection, 1878–12–28–48).1 See Tate D00364 (Turner Bequest XXII K) for another study of the west end of the Cathedral from a more distant viewpoint.

Finberg’s comment that ‘the artist has here drawn with his head rather than his eye, that he puts down not so much what he sees as what he understands’2 is perhaps unnecessarily critical of a working drawing whose purpose is evidently simply to record essential facts about a complex structure of which he made other drawings: see Tate D00343 and D00344 (Turner Bequest XXI P, Q).

Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.313 no.124, pl.22 (colour).

Finberg 1910, p.21.

Verso:

Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram; inscribed in a later hand ‘5’.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.