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

On the left is a detailed study of Hardingstone’s Eleanor Cross, built in the 1290s on an octagonal plan (hence Turner’s ‘8’) with intricate carvings and four statues of Queen Eleanor set in niches.1 The main view is flanked by details of the stonework. Turner shows a small cross crowning the structure, as seen in a 1773 drawing by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (British Library, London); according to a plaque at the site the present stone shaft at this upper level dates from 1840. The sketchy wooded landscape occupying the rest of the page may show the cross as a rough obelisk-like outline in its immediate setting. Turner had made a more elaborate drawing of the cross in the Matlock sketchbook when he visited Northampton in 1794 (Tate D00252; Turner Bequest XIX 37a).

The subject had been incorrectly identified as ‘Geddington Cross’ by A.J. Finberg (died 1939) and the watercolour and Turner scholar C.F. Bell (died 1966) in undated manuscript notes in copies of Finberg’s 1909 Inventory.2 See under folio 23 verso (D22364) for a brief history of the twelve Eleanor Crosses, of which Geddington’s is another in Northamptonshire, differing significantly in detail. There are related views on the recto (D22365) and folio 71 recto (D22459).