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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Tour to the Alps 1836 > Val d'Aosta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Cathedral of St Vaast, Arras 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Cathedral of St Vaast, Arras’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 71 Recto:
The Cathedral of St Vaast, Arras 1836
D29170
Turner Bequest CCXCIII 71
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 190 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘4’, ‘2’, ‘42’ above right
Inscribed, possibly by John Ruskin, in blue ink ‘71’ bottom left, inverted and ‘320’ top left, inverted
Stamped in brown ‘CCXCIII 71’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn inverted in relation to the main numbered sequence of subjects in the sketchbook, this sketch records Arras with the Cathedral of St Vaast (recently completed in 1833) from the north, looking across the river port to the Quai des Rivages crowded with barges in the foreground. The subject is continued to the right on the facing page (D29169; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 70a) and Turner drew the same site from a more distant viewpoint to the left on another page (D29175; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 73a).

David Hill
June 2010

How to cite

David Hill, ‘The Cathedral of St Vaast, Arras 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-cathedral-of-st-vaast-arras-r1144718, accessed 25 April 2024.