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 The Cloisters of Worcester Cathedral ?1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Cloisters of Worcester Cathedral’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 88 Verso:
The Cloisters of Worcester Cathedral ?1831
D22314
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 87a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Partial watermark ‘rnard | 20’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?3.JP | A]’, towards bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject was correctly identified as the ‘cloisters’ of Worcester Cathedral 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, where he had described the subject as simply the ‘interior’ of the cathedral.1
This vigorous sketch appears to show the view within the cloisters from the south-west corner. Their exterior is shown on the recto (D22313); compare also the sketch inside the cloisters at Chester Cathedral on folio 15 verso (D22178). For other views of Worcester, see under folio 2 verso (D22154).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

1
A.J. Finberg, undated MS notes in a copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.II, p.737; C.F. Bell, undated MS notes in another copy at the same location, vol.II, p.737.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Cloisters of Worcester Cathedral ?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-the-cloisters-of-worcester-cathedral-r1148962, accessed 25 April 2024.