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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Architectural Drawings for Commissions > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Oxford: The Interior of Christ Church Cathedral c.1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Oxford: The Interior of Christ Church Cathedral’ c.1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Oxford: The Interior of Christ Church Cathedral c.1798
D02348
Turner Bequest L G
Pencil and watercolour with stopping-out on white wove paper, 686 x 499 mm
Stamped in black ‘L – G’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is an unfinished watercolour, showing the view looking past the crossing and organ screen into the chancel. The sonorous tonality and bold treatment of Romanesque architecture take up themes that Turner had treated with great force in his exhibited watercolour of 1797, Transept of Ewenny Priory, Glamorganshire (National Museum Wales, Cardiff).1
A similar subject, embarked on about this time and taken closer to completion, is the grand view of the interior of Durham Cathedral (Tate D01101; Turner Bequest XXXVI G).

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.325 no.227, pl.28.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Oxford: The Interior of Christ Church Cathedral c.1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, 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-oxford-the-interior-of-christ-church-cathedral-r1174107, accessed 21 November 2024.