Joseph Mallord William Turner

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).

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).