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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Severn Valley, Chester and Peak District ... > Worcester and Shrewsbury Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Chester Cathedral: Inside the Crossing and the Choir ?1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Chester Cathedral: Inside the Crossing and the Choir’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Recto:
Chester Cathedral: Inside the Crossing and the Choir ?1831
D22214
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 35
Pencil on white wove paper, 191 x 114 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘35’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXIX – 35’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Ian Warrell has identified the subject as Chester Cathedral.1 With the page turned vertically, Turner has made two separate sketches, divided by a pencil line. Above is a view inside the central crossing beneath the tower, although the slightness of the drawing and later alterations including the introduction of a rood screen on the east side and a screen supporting an organ on the north makes the orientation unclear. Below is an even swifter sketch, apparently showing the elaborately carved medieval choir stalls.
For other views of Chester see under folio 14 verso (D22176). Folio 15 verso (D22178) shows the cathedral’s cloisters. There may be the beginnings of another interior view on folio 36 recto (D22216).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

1
Ian Warrell, notes from 1993 and later in Tate catalogue files.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Chester Cathedral: Inside the Crossing and the Choir ?1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, 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-chester-cathedral-inside-the-crossing-and-the-choir-r1148860, accessed 26 April 2024.