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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North of England 1797-1801 > North of England Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Egglestone Abbey, Seen from the River Tees 1797

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Egglestone Abbey, Seen from the River Tees’ 1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Recto:
Egglestone Abbey, Seen from the River Tees 1797
D00933
Turner Bequest XXXIV 27
Pencil on white wove paper, 210 x 270 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘27’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XXXIV 27’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In this drawing, made with the page turned vertically, Egglestone Abbey is seen from across the River Tees; other views of the site are on folios 29 recto and 95 recto (D00934, D01001; Turner Bequest XXXIV 28, 90), the latter a rapid and generalised note of the presbytery and canons’ dormitory. Turner visited Egglestone again in 1816 when he was preparing his series of illustrations for Whitaker’s History of Richmondshire, and made a drawing in his Yorkshire 4 sketchbook (Tate D11492; Turner Bequest CXLVII 31a) which almost replicates this composition. From it he derived a finished watercolour for Whitaker (private collection).1 Peter Bower notes that the mill in the foreground was James Cooke’s paper mill, which continued in the family until 1830. On folio 95 recto (D01001; Turner Bequest XXXIV 90) there is a schematic drawing of the interior of a mill, possibly, as Hill suggests,2 Cooke’s.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.365 no.565, reproduced.
2
Hill 1996, p.192.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
January 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Egglestone Abbey, Seen from the River Tees 1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-egglestone-abbey-seen-from-the-river-tees-r1150089, accessed 26 April 2024.