J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales and Isle of Wight 1795-1800 > Isle of Wight Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Salisbury: The West Front of the Cathedral 1795

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Salisbury: The West Front of the Cathedral’ 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Recto:
Salisbury: The West Front of the Cathedral 1795
D00423
Turner Bequest XXIV 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 204 x 264 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘16’ bottom left, descending vertically (now very faint)
Stamped in black ‘XXIV 16’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1758–1838) of Stourhead, Wiltshire, was in the process of writing a history of the county, for which he envisaged a series of views; he commissioned from Turner a set of watercolours of Salisbury Cathedral, and in due course, of other buildings in Salisbury and elsewhere in Wiltshire. This drawing is the basis for one of Hoare’s watercolours (Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston),1 and constitutes the first evidence we have of the connection between the artist and Colt Hoare (see the introduction to the sketchbook).
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally, and the finial of the gable is drawn as a continuation ‘above’ on folio 15 verso opposite (D41252). Other drawings of Salisbury Cathedral are on folios 17 recto and 19 recto (D00424, D00426).
1
Wilton 1979, p.321 no.198.
Technical notes:
There is a blot of brown colour below the centre of the drawing.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Salisbury: The West Front of the Cathedral 1795 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-salisbury-the-west-front-of-the-cathedral-r1141001, accessed 20 April 2024.