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 Worcester Cathedral from the River Severn ?1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Worcester Cathedral from the River Severn’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 82 Recto:
Worcester Cathedral from the River Severn ?1831
D22301
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 81
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘2 [?Ly]’, ‘3 [?Fn]’, ‘5’ and ‘7’ around tower top centre, and ‘R[... ?fishing Ch... along] | the [?River] W [...]’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘81’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXIX – 81’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, Worcester Cathedral is seen to the north-east above the River Severn. Various structures no longer survive; the buildings Turner recorded can be compared with those in a watercolour study by Joseph Farington (1747–1821) of about 1789 (Tate T08447), drawn from slightly to the south; see also under folio 4 verso (D22157). Although effectively from a single viewpoint, Turner’s study of the complex interrelationships of the buildings has become slightly disjointed, in that the riverfront walls at the bottom left and right should be continuous on a single level. At the top right are details of the tracery and a pinnacle of the cathedral’s tower. Turner pushed the page in from the outer edge to continue the view along the river to the left on folio 84 recto (D22305; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 83).
The details here informed the watercolour Worcester of about 1834 (British Museum, London),1 engraved in 1835 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impression: T06117), although its overall composition is based on the sketches on folios 81 verso and 83 verso (D22300, D22304; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 80a, 82a). Turner’s largely illegible inscription at the foot of the present page may refer to fishing on the Severn; in the watercolour girls are shown in the foreground trapping eels2 from a punt.
For other views of Worcester, see under folio 2 verso (D22154).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

1
Wilton 1979, p.401 no.862, reproduced; see also Shanes 1979, p.156, and Shanes 1990, p.286 note 185.
2
See Shanes 1990, p.241.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Worcester Cathedral from the River Severn ?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-worcester-cathedral-from-the-river-severn-r1148949, accessed 08 May 2024.