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 Oxford: The Front of Christ Church 1795

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Oxford: The Front of Christ Church’ 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 89 Recto:
Oxford: The Front of Christ Church 1795
D00659
Turner Bequest XXVI 97
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 203 x 264 mm
Watermark ‘J WHATMAN’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Venables Horses to stand in Livery by W | W – Neat Wines 2 – 3 1 2 Strong]’ top right and ‘C Church Colledge’ [Finberg 1918: ‘Christ Church Coll.’] bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘XXVI 97’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXVI 97’ bottom left, descending vertically
This leaf, which belongs to the 1795 South Wales tour, may be the missing ‘XXVI 70’ noted by Finberg1 (see the concordance in the sketchbook’s introduction); the style both of the drawing and the partial watercolour finishing, as well as of the neat inscription, conforms to Turner’s practice on that tour. See also folio 83 recto (D00653; Turner Bequest XXVI 91).
The drawing was the basis for the finished watercolour (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa),2 probably executed for Lord Mansfield in about 1796 as the first of a group of four views of Christ Church made for Mansfield, an alumnus of the college who went down in that year. See also Tate D02237 and D02240 (Turner Bequest XLVIII 2, 5).
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.52, XXVI 70, as ‘Missing’.
2
Wilton 1979, p.317 no.165, reproduced.
Verso:
Blank; stained and discoloured.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Oxford: The Front of Christ Church 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-oxford-the-front-of-christ-church-r1140978, accessed 27 April 2024.