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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Guernsey Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Church Interior, ?St Peter Port ?1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Church Interior, ?St Peter Port’ ?1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 54 Recto:
Church Interior, ?St Peter Port ?1832
D23621
Turner Bequest CCLII 54
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. JELL | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘St P[...] P[...] G’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘54’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLII – 54’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, this drawing of a church interior populated by multiple figures presents a problem of identification. The semi-legible note along the centre of the bottom edge of the page suggests a location at St Peter Port, Guernsey while the spire sketched on folio 53 verso opposite (D23620; Turner Bequest CCLII 53a) implies a scene at Caudebec-en-Caux, Normandy. However, the interior decoration seen here accords with neither attribution; at Caudebec the columns are far narrower with more delicate capitals and, at the Town Church in St Peter Port, the arches run straight down to squat piers. Gothic interiors recur in the volume on folios 34 recto (D23584; Turner Bequest CCLII 34) and 53 verso (D23620; Turner Bequest CCLII 53a).

John Chu
April 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Church Interior, ?St Peter Port ?1832 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, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-church-interior-st-peter-port-r1175113, accessed 18 September 2024.