Oil paint on mahogany
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Interior a Gothic Church
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
actions: postures and motions
adults
altar
arch
architecture
church
column
features
figure
furnishings
Gothic
interiors
medieval
objects
people
periods and styles
pew
pulpit
religious
religious and ceremonial
standing
<p>This study probably represents a particular building, perhaps in or near London, although it remains unidentified. There are watercolour views of other church interiors in the tiny <i>Wilson</i> sketchbook of about the same date (Tate). With its picturesque historical features and dramatic lighting, the subject clearly had some appeal for Turner, as he used it as late as 1819 for one of the few interiors in his <i>Liber Studiorum</i> series of landscape and architectural prints. This may in turn have influenced his 1822 composition of George IV in St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh (shown nearby), with its similar perspective.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint mahogany
Interior of a Gothic Church
support: 279 × 406 mm
frame: 330 × 458 × 35 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<p>This study probably represents a particular building, perhaps in or near London, although it remains unidentified. There are watercolour views of other church interiors in the tiny <i>Wilson</i> sketchbook of about the same date (Tate). With its picturesque historical features and dramatic lighting, the subject clearly had some appeal for Turner, as he used it as late as 1819 for one of the few interiors in his <i>Liber Studiorum</i> series of landscape and architectural prints. This may in turn have influenced his 1822 composition of George IV in St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh (shown nearby), with its similar perspective. 
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>24.</b> N05536<b> Interior of a Gothic Church</b> <i>c.</i>
1797
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5536)
<br/>Mahogany, 10 15/16 × 16 (28 ×40·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Engr.</b> By Turner for the <i>Liber Studiorum</i>, R.70, published on 1 January 1819, the date altered from the ‘1816’ of the third state (repr. Finberg 1924, pp. 278–9; the preliminary etching repr. p. 278).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, p. 167.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The figures in the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraving</span></a> are absent from the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> and there are other variations as if the interior was seen from a slightly different viewpoint. The painting does not show the sharply delineated shaft of light falling diagonally on the end wall at the right of the first two states of the engraving (‘the daylight effect’; see Finberg, <i>loc. cit.</i>). The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> is close to a group of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a> in the sketchbook, used in 1797, labelled by Turner ‘Studies for pictures—copies of Wilson’, particularly XXXVII—26/7 and 34/5 (the latter repr. in colour, as ‘36, 37’, in Wilkinson 1972, p. 53), though again there are differences in detail.
<br/>
<br/>All the edges of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a> have been bevelled at the back and it is probable that it originally came from a door or panelling. Turner used the reverse as a palette and a considerable amount of paint remains. The surface of the painting is very dirty and damaged by scratching and abrasion, largely done before the paint had fully dried.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults altar arch architecture church column features figure furnishings Gothic interiors medieval objects people periods and styles pew pulpit religious religious and ceremonial standing