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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lichfield Cathedral from the South-East 1830

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 51 Verso:
Lichfield Cathedral from the South-East 1830
D22070
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 51a
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘8’ at centre and ‘6’ towards centre right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s viewpoint here is the Close south-east of Lichfield Cathedral, looking along the south side to the transept and south-west spire. The drawing appears slightly disjointed, and he may have been moving around to compile a composite view, as the Lady Chapel at the east end and the adjacent flying buttresses on the right appear to have been drawn from further north than the transept, chapel and tower at the centre. Turner’s ‘8’ indicates the windows in the main body of the cathedral east of the tower, while his ‘6’ apparently notes the six vertical lights below the rapidly sketched upper tracery of the second window in the Lady Chapel.
There is almost a mirror image of this sketch on the recto (D22069), where the building is seen from the north-east. For other views of Lichfield, see under folio 50 verso opposite (D22068).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Lichfield Cathedral from the South-East 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lichfield-cathedral-from-the-south-east-r1148711, accessed 19 September 2024.