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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Ruins of the Holy Ghost Chapel, Basingstoke 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Ruins of the Holy Ghost Chapel, Basingstoke’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 244 Recto:
The Ruins of the Holy Ghost Chapel, Basingstoke 1811
D08791
Turner Bequest CXXIII 241
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘141’ top left, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 241’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The ruined medieval chapel is situated off Chapel Hill, near Basingstoke’s railway station, to the north of the old centre of the town. Turner shows the west end of the building from the north, with the tower in the centre of the sketch and windows to the left in the surviving south wall, which extends several bays further to the east.
There are other views of and from the site on folios 248 verso, 249 recto and verso and 250 recto (D08797, D08798, D08799, D08800; CXXIII 245a, 246, 246a, 247). Basingstoke seems to have been the last calling point at which Turner made drawings on the return leg of his 1811 West Country journey (see the introduction to the tour).
Turner later owned a pencil outline view of the same side of the chapel by his friend and contemporary Thomas Girtin (Tate D36595; Turner Bequest CCCLXXVII 24), also showing a large gabled building to its east, which is no longer in evidence in Turner’s views from the south on folios 249 verso and 250 recto. The Girtin is noted by Andrew Wilton as having been copied with variations from a design by James Moore or a watercolour by Edward Dayes, engraved by J.I. Parkyns for Moore’s Monastic Remains and Ancient Castles in England and Wales, London 1792, vol.I, facing p.61. Along with similar drawings, it was apparently acquired by Turner at auction in 1833, from the estate of his and Girtin’s early mentor Dr Thomas Monro.1
1
Andrew Wilton, draft entry for the present catalogue consulted by the author.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Ruins of the Holy Ghost Chapel, Basingstoke 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-ruins-of-the-holy-ghost-chapel-basingstoke-r1137270, accessed 27 September 2024.