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 Ruined Church Building; and Harbour with Shipping 1834

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ruined Church Building; and Harbour with Shipping’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 61 Verso:
Ruined Church Building; and Harbour with Shipping 1834
D26214
Turner Bequest CCLXVIII 61a
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 181 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned in the landscape format with the foredge at the top are two rough overlapping sketches. At the top is the view of the interior of a ruined church or abbey. This has not been identified, but may be the same building that is depicted on several other pages of the sketchbook (see folio 64 verso; D26220 for references). Beneath is a quick sketch of a row of buildings and a tall tower.
With the sketchbook turned to the right is a sketch of shipping that includes what may be a steamboat at the centre of the group, with another steamboat (identifiable by the puff of steam from its funnel) to the left. This is one of numerous coastal sketches in this book, and was perhaps made around the Thames Estuary or the coast of Kent (see folio 2 verso; D26098).

Thomas Ardill
January 2011

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Ruined Church Building; and Harbour with Shipping 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-ruined-church-building-and-harbour-with-shipping-r1136142, accessed 26 April 2024.