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 > South Wales Sketchbook > Artwork

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

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Llandaff: The West Front of the Cathedral’ 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Recto:
Llandaff: The West Front of the Cathedral 1795
D00556
Turner Bequest XXVI 4
Pencil on white wove paper, 264 x 203 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Purple and Green Brown and R Ocker’ and ‘4’ top right
Stamped in black ‘XXVI 4’ bottom right
The cathedral was begun by Bishop Urban in 1120; the west front, recorded here, dates from a century later. It incorporated a statue of one of the founders and patron saints of the foundation, St. Teilo; this appears in the high central niche of the gable. By Turner’s time the structure had become so dilapidated that a new, classical church was in use instead. This is no longer extant. A finished watercolour of this subject is Tate D00686 (Turner Bequest XXVIII A);1 it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1796 (701), and may have been executed for Dr Mathews; see the inscription verso, and Turner’s note of ‘Order’d Drawings’ near the front of this sketchbook (D40557). The inscription at the top right has been largely obliterated, presumably in the Tate flood of 1928; its transcription was made by Finberg in a MS note.2
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.315 no.143, pl.24.
2
Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Dr Matthews | D [?or ‘2’]’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Llandaff: 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-llandaff-the-west-front-of-the-cathedral-r1140883, accessed 31 October 2025.