Watercolor and graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 8 7/8 x 10 3/4 inches (22.5 x 27.3 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1986.29.494
Gallery Label:
Turner and Girtin were born in the same year and began their careers as antiquarian topographers. Turner was making sketching tours while still in his early teens. This view relates to one of two tours of Kent he made in 1792 and 1793. While visiting Canterbury he was clearly attracted to the early sixteenth-century gateway protecting the Cathedral of Christ Church beyond. Although he exhibited a view of the main façade of the gatehouse at the Royal Academy, in this version Turner painted the less grand internal side of the archway, focusing on the narrow street within the Cathedral close and presaging his interest in probing beyond the surface of things. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)