The Blackfriars’ Cross, Hereford

?1793

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Watercolours and Studies Relating to the Welsh and Marches Tours
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 409 x 252 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D00150
Turner Bequest XIII E

Catalogue entry

On a sheet considerably larger than the rest of the 1792–3 series, and a design that does not fit the available space, this may be a tracing (compare Tate D00149 and D00154; Turner Bequest XIII D, XIV A), preparatory for the watercolour now at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent,1 which can be dated, on stylistic grounds, to 1792–3. Another version of the subject is at Gallery Oldham, and a further version, in blue and grey washes, was sold at Sotheby’s, London, November 20 1986 (87),2 And is now in Hereford Museum and Art Gallery.

Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.306 no.47, reproduced.

See ‘Salerooms’, Turner Society News, no.43, February 1987, p.6, reproduced.

Technical notes:

The sheet was once folded horizontally 85 mm below the upper edge of the sheet; the top of the image is about 140 mm below the upper edge.

Verso:

Blank; stamped in black ink with Turner Bequest monogram; inscribed in a modern hand ‘8’.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

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