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 the Marches 1792-4 > Drawings and Watercolours Connected with ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Worcester Cathedral Seen under an Arch of the Bridge ?1792

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Worcester Cathedral Seen under an Arch of the Bridge’ ?1792
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Worcester Cathedral Seen under an Arch of the Bridge ?1792
D00152
Turner Bequest XIII G
Pencil on white wove paper, 210 x 274 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Worcester Cathedral from the Bridge’ bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘XIII – G’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view from beneath the bridge is adopted from a composition encountered in several works from this period by Turner and artists in his circle. Rhaidr Gwy Bridge over the River Wye, for instance (National Museum Wales, Cardiff)1 is possibly not by Turner but by Edward Dayes (1763–1804); the view of Warwick Castle from under the bridge (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester)2 may have been in Dr Monro’s collection. A view of the west front of Worcester Cathedral is in the British Museum, London (John Henderson Bequest);3 and a pencil drawing inscribed ‘West Window of Worcester Cathedral’ is in the Pantzer Collection, Indianapolis Museum of Art.
By the time that the Loan Collections were catalogued in 1920 this sheet had been withdrawn, presumably on account of the discoloration that had taken place.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.310 no.81, reproduced.
2
Ibid., p.309 no.79, reproduced.
3
Ibid., p.308 no.67, pl.16.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram; inscribed in a later hand ‘10½ x 8’ and in another hand ‘8’.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Worcester Cathedral Seen under an Arch of the Bridge ?1792 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-worcester-cathedral-seen-under-an-arch-of-the-bridge-r1141132, accessed 16 April 2024.