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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Severn Valley, Chester and Peak District ... > Worcester and Shrewsbury Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Chester and the River Dee from the East ?1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Chester and the River Dee from the East’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Recto:
Chester and the River Dee from the East ?1831
D22259
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 59
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘59’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXIX – 59’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
At the top the main view, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, shows Chester down the River Dee looking west from the vicinity of Queen’s Park. The tall tower on the right is that of St John the Baptist’s Church, which collapsed in 1881.1 The Old Dee Bridge is in the distance with the silhouette of the castle above; a pedestrian suspension bridge now crosses below St John’s. The vista is continued a little to the right on folio 58 verso (D22258).
At the bottom right the whole view is reprised on a smaller scale, framed by pencil lines, while at the outer edge appears to be a detail around the north end of the Old Dee Bridge, made with the page turned vertically. For other views of Chester, see under folio 14 verso (D22176).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

1
See Steve Howe, ‘9. The Church of St. John the Baptist’, Chester: A Virtual Stroll around the Walls, accessed 24 October 2013, http://www.chesterwalls.info/stjohn.html.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Chester and the River Dee from the East ?1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, 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-chester-and-the-river-dee-from-the-east-r1148905, accessed 18 April 2024.