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

Here Turner has produced a drawing of Portsmouth’s old town, with the Cathedral and Square Tower at right. The Cathedral’s origins are owed to a wealthy Norman merchant called Jean de Gisors who donated land in 1180 for the construction of a chapel dedicated to Thomas of Canterbury.1 Over the centuries the chapel was transformed into a church, and enlarged and modified with features such as a wooden cupola and lantern to be used as a navigational aid to shipping. Turner depicts the cupola here, along with separate detail of it to the right. There is also a small jotting of a rusticated ‘Stone’ arch. The Square Tower, visible in the immediate foreground at right, was constructed in 1494 under the instruction of Henry VIII.2 In 1584 it was converted into a gunpowder store and from 1799 to 1850 used a Royal Navy meat store.3 A semaphore station was added on top of the tower in 1823 to carry messages from the shore to ships in the harbour and at sea.4

Portsmouth is shown on Tate D41237, D18311; Turner Bequest CCX 1, and elsewhere on Tate D17918, D17922, D17932–D17935, D17944, D17946, D20768; Turner Bequest CCVI 3a, 52, 10a – 12, 16a, 17a, CCXXVII 23. See also the designs for the Southern Coast series and the Ports of England series (Tate D18152, Tate impressions T04833 and T04419).