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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Abbotsford Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dryburgh Abbey 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dryburgh Abbey’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Verso:
Dryburgh Abbey 1831
D25943
Turner Bequest CCLXVII 9a
Pencil on off-white wove writing paper, 113 x 185 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook inverted, this view of Dryburgh Abbey from across the River Tweed to the south closely resembles the sketch on folio 9 (D25942; CCLXVII 9). The slight change in viewpoint, however, brings the abbey in the present sketch closer to the watercolour that Turner made of the subject: Dryburgh Abbey circa 1832, (Tate N05241).1 Beyond the abbey at the left are the peaks of the Eildon Hills, and at the right the Wallace Statue (commissioned by the eleventh Earl of Buchan) stands on a rise on the north bank of the Tweed. In Turner’s day it was painted white (though is now unpainted) and would have been more prominent. It can be seen in Turner’s watercolour above the abbey to the right.
See folio 9 for reference to other sketches of Dryburgh.

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.428 no.1078.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Dryburgh Abbey 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-dryburgh-abbey-r1134313, accessed 26 April 2024.