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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Kenilworth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Christ Church and St Aldate's, Oxford 1830

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Christ Church and St Aldate's, Oxford’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Recto:
Christ Church and St Aldate’s, Oxford 1830
D21975
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 1
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘W[...]’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘1’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 1’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Looking north up St Aldate’s, Oxford, the south-west corner of Christ Church college is seen on the right of this slight sketch, with Tom Tower beyond. As Finberg recognised,1 it formed the basis of the much-elaborated watercolour Christ Church College, Oxford (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford),2 engraved in 1832 for Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales. An inscription of three or four words at the bottom centre is largely illegible.
Turner worked repeatedly around Oxford in his early career, and returned periodically.3 Exterior studies of Christ Church from the early 1790s include Tate D00115, D00154 and D00155 (Turner Bequest VIII A, XIV A, B); from the later 1790s come Tate D00665, D02358, D02363, D02365, D08262 (Turner Bequest XXVII D, L Q, V and X, and CXXI G) and studies in the South Wales sketchbook (Tate D00659; Turner Bequest XXVI 97) and the Smaller Fonthill sketchbook (Tate D02237, D02240; Turner Bequest XLVIII 2, 5). A view in the Rhine, Strassburg and Oxford sketchbook (Tate D04769; Turner Bequest LXXVII 29a) dates from the early 1800s. Finished watercolours from the 1790s are in the British Museum, London,4 the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge,5 the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford,6 and private collections.7
There are other Oxford views inside the front cover opposite (D41045), on the verso (D21976) and on folio 2 recto (D21977).
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.729; see also Shanes 1979, p.156; Lyles 1992, p.55; English Watercolours and Drawings, exhibition catalogue 1996, p.[15]; Herrmann 1990, pp.131–[2].
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.400 no.853.
3
See Harrison 2000, pp.86–7 and in general.
4
Wilton 1979, p.309 no.71, pl.17.
5
Ibid., p.309 no.72, reproduced.
6
Ibid., p.333 no.295, reproduced.
7
Ibid., p.314 no.133, reproduced; for another, not in Wilton, see Harrison 2000, p.101 no.24, fig.21.
Technical notes:
There are two short, parallel tears at the centre of the outer edge, between which a small section of the leaf has become creased and folded back, corresponding to part of the brass clasp inside the front cover opposite (D41045).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Christ Church and St Aldate’s, Oxford 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-christ-church-and-st-aldates-oxford-r1148616, accessed 19 April 2024.