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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1834 > Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Galashiels Old Parish Church 1834

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Galashiels Old Parish Church’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 45 Recto:
Galashiels Old Parish Church 1834
D26182
Turner Bequest CCLXVIII 45
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 181 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘45’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVIII – 45’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This rather scrappy sketch depicts Gala Hill from across the Gala Water to the north. The tower at the centre belongs to Galashiels Old Parish Church, which was built in 1813 and demolished in 1960;1 it can be seen in the views of Galashiels on folios 43 and 45 verso (D26178, D26183). The chimney to the lower left of it belongs to one of the town’s woollen mills.
For further references to sketches of Galashiels and details about the context of Turner’s visit to the town, see folio 42 verso (D26177).

Thomas Ardill
January 2011

1
‘Galashiels, Old Parish Church’, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland, accessed 20 January 2011, < http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/259880/details/galashiels+old+parish+church/>.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Galashiels Old Parish Church 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2011, 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-galashiels-old-parish-church-r1136110, accessed 22 September 2024.