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 Castle and St John the Baptist's Church across the River Dee ?1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Chester Castle and St John the Baptist's Church across the River Dee’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 62 Recto:
Chester Castle and St John the Baptist’s Church across the River Dee ?1831
D22265
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 62
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘15’ and ‘12’ centre left, ‘7’ above centre and ‘[?w L...]’ towards top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘62’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXIX – 62’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject was identified as ‘Chester’ by A.J. Finberg (died 1939) and the watercolour and Turner scholar C.F. Bell (died 1966) in undated manuscript notes in copies of Finberg’s 1909 Inventory.1 The view is north-east up the River Dee past Chester Castle, seen on folio 61 verso opposite (D22264), to the Old Dee Bridge and the tower of St John the Baptist’s Church, which collapsed in 1881.2 The subject is comparable with Turner’s 1794 drawing (Tate D40041; verso of Turner Bequest XXI L), the basis of an untraced watercolour3 engraved in 1796 as Chester (Tate impression: T05892). See also the views on folio 61 recto (D22263).
For other views of Chester, see under folio 14 verso (D22176).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

1
A.J. Finberg, undated MS notes in a copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.II, p.735; C.F. Bell, undated MS notes in another copy at the same location, vol.II, p.735.
2
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.
3
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.311 no.93.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Chester Castle and St John the Baptist’s Church across the River Dee ?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-castle-and-st-john-the-baptists-church-across-the-r1148911, accessed 23 September 2024.