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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > France c.1826-41 > France: Identified or Likely Subjects ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Cathedral in ?France c.1826-32

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Cathedral in ?France’ c.1826-32
A Cathedral in ?France c.1826–32
D25015
Turner Bequest CCLXI 43
Pencil on blue wove paper, 189 x 141 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom left
Inscribed in pencil ‘232 | O’ top right, ascending vertically
Inscribed in red ink ‘43’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXI – 43’ bottom left, descending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Distinguished by its rose window, this unidentified cathedral is partly obscured by buildings in the foreground. Turner likely encountered this subject on one of his many visits to France. Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest groups this drawing among other works on blue paper, ‘mostly very slight in character’ and likely depicting French or possibly northern Italian subjects.1 As Finberg noted, John Ruskin dismissed most of the sheets in the bundle numbered CCLXI 1–128 as ‘Chalk scrawls on grey. Rubbish’.2 See the Introduction for general remarks on this grouping.
The verso, D40101, depicts a street scene with a church or cathedral in the background.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.813.
2
Ibid.
Technical notes:
The paper appears blotchy and discoloured in areas.

Hannah Kaspar
April 2024

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘A Cathedral in ?France c.1826–32’, catalogue entry, April 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2024, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/a-cathedral-in-france-r1209236, accessed 01 October 2025.