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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Midlands 1794-1802 > Drawings Made on the Midland Tour > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Crowland (Croyland) Abbey, Lincolnshire: Part of the West Front 1794

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Crowland (Croyland) Abbey, Lincolnshire: Part of the West Front’ 1794
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Crowland (Croyland) Abbey, Lincolnshire: Part of the West Front 1794
D00359
Turner Bequest XXII F
Pencil on white wove paper, 275 x 213 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXII F’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The religious house at Crowland was founded by St Guthlac in the early seventh century; it flourished and became an important Benedictine community with splendid buildings which were added to throughout the Middle Ages; after the dissolution in 1539 part of the Abbey was demolished, and the structure suffered considerably during the siege of Crowland during the Civil War.
The ruins were greatly admired by Picturesque and antiquarian travellers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Another drawing of them is Tate D00362 (Turner Bequest XXII I). While he was in Crowland, Turner also made a drawing of the famous Triangular Bridge, in his Matlock sketchbook (Tate D00241; Turner Bequest XIX 31a).
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Crowland (Croyland) Abbey, Lincolnshire: Part of the West Front 1794 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-crowland-croyland-abbey-lincolnshire-part-of-the-west-front-r1141080, accessed 24 April 2024.