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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Chester Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Town with a Large Perpendicular Church 1801

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Town with a Large Perpendicular Church’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 71 Recto:
A Town with a Large Perpendicular Church 1801
D05150
Turner Bequest LXXXII 71
Pencil on white wove paper, 161 x 256 mm
Blind–stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘71’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXXXII – 71’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This incomplete study was made with the page turned horizontally. The building may be the parish church of St Boniface at Bunbury, which Turner could have passed on his way from Chester to Nantwich (see folio 72 recto; D05151).
However, the drawing shows a building closer in appearance (the tower having corner pinnacles only, and corner buttresses) to St Oswald’s, Malpas, a small town further to the west also boasting a large Perpendicular parish church, which would not have been on a direct route, though Turner could have passed through it if he visited Wrexham. There is no evidence that he did so on this tour, though there seems to be a distant view of Wrexham from Beeston Castle on folio 70 recto (D05149). Turner had been to Wrexham in 1794; see the drawing extracted from the Matlock sketchbook (Tate D00402; Turner Bequest XXIII b).
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Town with a Large Perpendicular Church 1801 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-town-with-a-large-perpendicular-church-r1178719, accessed 30 June 2024.