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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales and Isle of Wight 1795-1800 > Isle of Wight Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Winchester: The West Front of the Cathedral 1795

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Winchester: The West Front of the Cathedral’ 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Recto:
Winchester: The West Front of the Cathedral 1795
D00417
Turner Bequest XXIV 11
Pencil, grey and brown wash on white wove paper, 204 x 264 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XXIV 11’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The West Front of Winchester Cathedral dates from the second half of the fourteenth century, and incorporates William of Wykeham’s great Perpendicular window, the largest in the cathedral. The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally, and the composition is continued ‘above’ with a slight sketch of the gable pinnacle on folio 10 verso opposite (the verso of D00416).
Turner never made a finished view of the building, though he seems to have had one in mind, as he made a thumbnail composition sketch of it seen from the north on folio 14 recto (D00420; Turner Bequest XXIV 14a).
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Winchester: The West Front of the Cathedral 1795 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-winchester-the-west-front-of-the-cathedral-r1140994, accessed 20 April 2024.