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

From the glen to the south-west of Dunfermline Abbey, this view looks up to the abbey church at the top of the picture. The church is depicted in outline only with the north-west tower and spire and the smaller south-west tower at the left, and the square east tower at the right. Turner could afford to be economical in this sketch as he had drawn a more detailed view from nearby opposite on folio 3 verso (D26441). There are a number of houses and small buildings beneath the abbey, one of which appears to have a water-wheel as in Turner’s watercolour, Dunfermline circa 1834–5 (private collection),1 which shows the abbey from a similar view. To the left of the sketch is the glen in what is now Pittencrieff Park.

Turner visited Dunfermline on his way from Edinburgh to Stirling in 1831 and later used his sketches as the basis for an illustration to a new edition of Sir Walter Scott’s Tales of a Grandfather. See folio 3 verso (D26441) for details and references to further sketches.