Joseph Mallord William Turner

This is a careful study of the tower and south porch of St Botolph’s Church. There is a slight continuation of the subject on folio 85 verso opposite (D40564). The church tower (‘Boston Stump’) is nearly 300 feet (91 metres) high, and contains a light to guide vessels into the nearby Wash. Boston, which was an important port for several centuries, was a subject like Louth (see folio 84 recto; D00990; Turner Bequest XXXIV 80), that Benjamin Howlett had commissioned Turner to draw for his Select Views in the County of Lincoln. As in the case of Louth, the work was ultimately done by Girtin. A finished watercolour based on both this drawing and that on folio 87 recto (D00993; Turner Bequest XXXIV 82) was executed much later for the England and Wales series, in about 1833; it is now in the collection of McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario,1 and was engraved in 1835 (Tate impression: T06115).

John Ruskin’s comments on this drawing, and two others exhibited with it, the tower of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol (Tate D00661; Turner Bequest XXVI 99) and the transept and towers of York Minster (Tate D01088; Turner Bequest XXXV 86), are as follows:

Verso:

Blank, except for pencil trials; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram