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 > Smaller South Wales Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Wells: The Bishop's Eye Gateway 1795

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Wells: The Bishop's Eye Gateway’ 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
Wells: The Bishop’s Eye Gateway 1795
D00466
Turner Bequest XXV 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 205 x 130 mm
Inscribed by Ruskin in blue ink ‘295’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XXV 5’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The gate was built by Bishop Bekynton as an entrance to the Bishop’s Palace from the Market Place, an amenity that Bekynton gave to the people of Wells in 1451. Another view of the same gate, seen from farther away across the Market Place, is in the South Wales sketchbook (Tate D00553; Turner Bequest XXVI 1).
Technical notes:
Part of John Ruskin’s inscription on his wrapper for the sketchbook, recorded by Finberg, read ‘5 leaves taken out which were burnt at the edge’;1 this refers to folios 1 recto–4 recto (D00462–D00465) and the present leaf.
The bottom right corner (or top right corner relative to the sketchbook’s foliation) has been lost and made up.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.43; see also p.44.
Verso:
Inscribed, probably not by Turner, in pencil ‘Wells’; and in a later hand in pencil ‘19 | 14 439’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Wells: The Bishop’s Eye Gateway 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-wells-the-bishops-eye-gateway-r1140785, accessed 23 April 2024.