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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > London and Home Counties 1793-5 > Kent and Middlesex > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rochester: The West Porch of the Cathedral 1794

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Rochester: The West Porch of the Cathedral’ 1794
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Rochester: The West Porch of the Cathedral 1794
D01109
Turner Bequest XXXVI O
Pencil on white wove paper, 275 x 210 mm
Watermark ‘J WHATMAN’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Entrance all Down]’, ‘6’, ‘6 | Slates | 11’ and ‘2 | Broken | 6’ within the drawing
Stamped in black ‘XXXVI O’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg placed this sheet (which has dimensions similar to the other Rochester and the Canterbury subjects in this group, Tate D00157, D00159 and D01110; Turner Bequest XV A, C, XXXVI P) with subjects related to Turner’s North of England tour of 1797, guided by the list of names on the verso (D40254), which does not, however, necessarily refer to that tour. C.F. Bell identified the building as Rochester Cathedral, and the style of the drawing is consistent with a date of about 1794.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Rochester: The West Porch of the Cathedral 1794 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-rochester-the-west-porch-of-the-cathedral-r1140302, accessed 21 November 2024.