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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North of England 1797-1801 > Watercolours and Drawings Related to the ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Oxford: Christ Church, with Tom Tower 1797-8

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Oxford: Christ Church, with Tom Tower’ 1797-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Oxford: Christ Church, with Tom Tower 1797–8
D02365
Turner Bequest L X
Pencil in white wove paper, 207 x 266 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘L.X.’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘L – X’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This rough sketch shows a distant view of Christ Church from the meadows. There is a possible link with the finished watercolour (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)1 for the 1799 Oxford Almanack (Tate impressions: T05919, T05920) and the study for it in the Smaller Fonthill sketchbook (Tate D02237; Turner Bequest XLVIII 2). For the dating of this drawing and contemporary views in the Oxford area, see under Tate D02358 (Turner Bequest L Q).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.333 no.295, reproduced.
Technical notes:
This is one of a sequence of sixteen Yorkshire and other subjects included in the present subsection which were executed on uniform sheets of paper, as discussed and listed in the Introduction. Unusually in that sequence, it makes use of pencil shading to achieve a tone on Tom Tower.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram (stamp partly erased).

Andrew Wilton
January 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Oxford: Christ Church, with Tom Tower 1797–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-oxford-christ-church-with-tom-tower-r1150288, accessed 25 April 2024.