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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Thames, from Reading to Walton ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bisham Church and Abbey, from Mid-River, Looking South 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bisham Church and Abbey, from Mid-River, Looking South’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Bisham Church and Abbey, from Mid-River, Looking South 1805
D05909
Turner Bequest XCV 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 259 x 367 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Calm’ lower left of centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘5’ bottom right
Stamped in lack ‘CXV 5’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This was a right-hand page from the sketchbook. From Marlow (for which see Tate D05906; Turner Bequest XCV 2), Turner seems to have gone about a mile downstream to look back at the town from Winter Hill (see Tate D05907; Turner Bequest XCV 3). There, he was able to see Bisham in the distance on the left. This drawing looks south to Bisham, which is seen more closely from the river with the Norman tower of All Saints Church and the Tudor mansion, formerly Bisham Abbey, in the right distance. Turner notes the calm surface of the Thames as it passes in the foreground. A stain on the right of the leaf matches one on D05907 and D05910; Turner Bequest XCV 3, 6.
Verso:
Blank. Laid down.

David Blayney Brown
January 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Bisham Church and Abbey, from Mid-River, Looking South 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2009, 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-bisham-church-and-abbey-from-mid-river-looking-south-r1129940, accessed 24 April 2024.