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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North of England 1797-1801 > Tweed and Lakes Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ripon Cathedral: The Crossing, Rood Screen, and South Transept Seen from the North Transept 1797

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ripon Cathedral: The Crossing, Rood Screen, and South Transept Seen from the North Transept’ 1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Recto:
Ripon Cathedral: The Crossing, Rood Screen, and South Transept Seen from the North Transept 1797
D01009
Turner Bequest XXXV 6
Pencil on white wove paper, 370 x 274 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXXV 6’ bottom right
Turner scholar David Hill describes this careful study as ‘palpably an exercise in meditation. The artist rapt in his subject and oblivious to all else.’1 Finberg characterised it as ‘merely an average example of the kind of work that Turner now seemed to produce without the slightest effort. The most complicated structure and detail now presented no difficulties to his well-trained eye and hand. ... But there is no trace of emotion or imagination in the graceful play of these clear-cut, accurate, and methodical lines.’2 A similarly careful but impressive drawing of the interior is on the preceding leaf, folio 8 recto (D01008; Turner Bequest XXXV 5). The Minster became the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Ripon in 1836.
1
Hill 1996, p.34.
2
Finberg 1910, p.34.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram; inscribed by A.J. Finberg in pencil ‘41.6; Ripon? | AJF’.

Andrew Wilton
August 2010

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Ripon Cathedral: The Crossing, Rood Screen, and South Transept Seen from the North Transept 1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-ripon-cathedral-the-crossing-rood-screen-and-south-transept-r1150173, accessed 26 April 2024.