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

This sketch shows the south side of St Editha’s Church, Tamworth, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. Turner’s ‘13’, indicates the sequence of windows along the corresponding sections of its clerestory. There is a related note above the outline of the church in one of the views in the contemporary Kenilworth sketchbook (Tate D22081; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 55b), opposite another view with a comparable but slightly less detailed elevation (Tate D22080; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 55a). For other views of Tamworth see under folio 32 verso (D22382). Turner’s other note on the present page relates to some separate details including tracery at the top right.

The subject had been tentatively but incorrectly identified as ‘St Chad’s, Lichfield’ 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.1 For actual views of Lichfield see under folio 31 verso opposite (D22380).

Technical notes:

This leaf is affected by the extensive pale brown, mottled staining which extends throughout this particular gathering (folios 31–42; D22379–D22402) and also folios 30 and 43 recto and verso (D22377, D22378, D22403, D22404), as discussed in the Technical notes to the sketchbook’s Introduction.