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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > London and Home Counties 1793-5 > Hertfordshire and Middlesex > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner St Albans: The Interior of the Abbey, Looking East 1793

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘St Albans: The Interior of the Abbey, Looking East’ 1793
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
St Albans: The Interior of the Abbey, Looking East 1793
D01100
Turner Bequest XXXVI F
Pencil on white wove paper, 381 x 431 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘B’ and ‘10’ towards lower left within the drawing
Stamped in black ‘XXXVI F’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This unfinished study is the first showing an ecclesiastical interior of the kind that Turner was to develop into a series of impressive watercolours in the middle years of the decade. No finished view of the interior of St Albans is known, however. Finberg listed this drawing as a view of Ripon; the present identification is due to C.F. Bell. Other studies of St Albans Abbey are Tate D00345, D00346, D00385, D00387 and D01893 (Turner Bequest XXI R, S, XXIII K, M, XLIV Q).
Technical notes:
The sheet is stained and torn in several places along the top and bottom edges.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘St Albans: The Interior of the Abbey, Looking East 1793 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-st-albans-the-interior-of-the-abbey-looking-east-r1140278, accessed 19 April 2024.