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Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (1775-1851) The Entrance to Bishop Vaughan's Chapel, St David's Cathedral, Wales signed and inscribed in Turner's hand to the reverse 'Bishops [sic] Vaughan Chapel St David's Cathedral / W Turner' watercolour 32.5 x 24.5cm Provenance: A Suffolk country house collection since at least 1990 The present, hitherto unrecorded, composition draws upon Turner’s 1795 tour of South Wales and is the only fully worked up watercolour of St David’s, Pembrokeshire. His South Wales Sketchbook (Turner Bequest XXVI) includes four architectural studies which relate to his visit to St David’s, two of which are inscribed with Turner’s own title in his hand – St David’s: Part of the Ruins of the Bishop's Palace (folio 35); “Bishops [sic] Throne, St Davids Cathedral ” (folio 36); “Bishops Vaughan [sic] Chapel “ (folio 37) and St David’s: Porch of the Great Hall of the Bishop’s Palace (folio 40). The itinerary of Turner’s summer tour of 1795 is transcribed in another hand on the inside front cover and first two flyleaves of the sketchbook and details his journey starting at Wells, Somerset, making his way to Wales and visiting Picton Castle just before St David’s. Setting out from Haverfordwest, Turner travelled ’36 miles and back’ and disappointingly noted in his own hand ‘no inn ‘ (ibid, first flyleaf verso, p. 3 of itinerary). Judging by Turner’s own annotations which designated all places with 'good inns’ along the way with an ‘x’ (see Andrew Wilton, ‘Inscriptions by Turner and Another Hand: A Welsh Itinerary and Notes 1795 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) Haverfordwest was a good place to stay which is perhaps why Turner returned there after his trip to St David’s. This watercolour is closely based on the preparatory sketch of the same subject in the South Wales Sketchbook (folio 37, 26.4 x 20.3cm, see illustration below). That sketch which Turner himself inscribed with the title “Bishops Vaughan [sic] Chapel “ in the bottom right corner is similarly inscribed as the present watercolour on the verso “Bishops Vaughan [sic] Chapel St David’s Cathedral ” (see illustration below). The view, in fact, depicts the entrance to Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel with the ruins of St Mary’s Chapel in the left foreground. The chapel was built in 1509 for Edward Vaughan (Bishop 1509-1522) as his chantry chapel and burial place and was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, the name under which it is now known. The effigy which appears in the foreground of both works is that of John Hiot, Archdeacon of St David’s from 1400-1419. Turner depicted the intricate architectural detail with extraordinary accuracy, also recording the poor state of the building and the unroofed condition of the North Choir and Chapel Aisles as they were in 1795. The viewpoint, however, that he chose is taken from the North Chapel Aisle and so attests to Turner’s imaginative use of lighting and perspective as the small door to the right would, in fact, be invisible from this angle. The present watercolour epitomises Turner’s early architectural drawing and was almost certainly worked up from the preparatory sketch back in his London studio as a private commission for one of his patrons or friends. We are grateful to Andrew Wilton for confirming the attribution first hand and for his assistance with this catalogue entry. Watercolour with pencil underdrawing on laid paper watermarked J Whatman. Watermark is visible under raking light. On paste board, in a modern acid free mount. Hinged at the top with tape. Had previously been stuck down onto another support. 12 blobs of animal based adhesive to verso. Faint graphite marks to the reverse. A tiny tear on the left hand side about third way up from the bottom. A little tear on the right hand side, third of the way down. A fracture in top right corner. Creases in bottom left and right corners. Faint polishing marks seen in reflected light inside the arch and in bottom left corner. A small abrasion inside the arch on the right hand side. Area of discolouration in the sky across most of the top edge. Insect damage near the centre of top edge. Small brown spots of foxing visible in the sky. Paper little discoloured, but colours are good. Under raking light 5 tiny spots of mould visible mostly in the bottom half. Slight dents along the right edge. Indentation near top left corner. Wetransfer link for high resolution images: https://we.tl/t-DxHWxadHla
