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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Cloisters of Chester Cathedral ?1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Verso:
The Cloisters of Chester Cathedral ?1831
D22178
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 15a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[...]’ top left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject had been amended as ‘Chester’ 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.1 Turner shows the crossing tower of Chester Cathedral through the ruined window arches of the Gothic cloisters, looking south-east; in order to record the windows of the cathedral’s nave and the far side of the cloisters, he has effectively rendered the stonework on the near side transparent.
An 1811 etching by George Cuitt, Junior (1779–1854) shows a similar view of Part of the Cloisters of Chester Cathedral (British Museum, London), indicating the ruinous state of the tracery in the early nineteenth century. The cloisters were restored in 1911–13 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880–1960).2
For other views of Chester, see under folio 14 verso (D22176). Compare also the sketch inside the cloisters at Worcester Cathedral on folio 88 verso (D22314; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 87a).

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.734; C.F. Bell, undated MS notes in another copy at the same location, vol.II, p.734; subject confirmed by Ian Warrell in notes from 1993 and later in Tate catalogue files.
2
See Steve Howe, ‘The Cathedral II’, Chester: A Virtual Stroll around the Walls, accessed 7 October 2013, http://www.chesterwalls.info/cathedral2.html.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Cloisters of Chester 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-chester-cathedral-r1148824, accessed 19 March 2024.