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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devon Rivers, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Still Tower, Tavistock Abbey, beside the River Tavy 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Still Tower, Tavistock Abbey, beside the River Tavy’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 146 Verso:
The Still Tower, Tavistock Abbey, beside the River Tavy 1814
D09667
Turner Bequest CXXXII 146a
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed in a later hand in pencil ‘2’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight drawing was made from Tavistock’s Abbey Bridge, looking south-west down the River Tavy along the perimeter wall of Tavistock Abbey, with the castellated Still Tower in the distance (see also folio 144 verso; D09663). The gabled building with an arch on the right does not survive; it is also shown on folio 143 verso (D09661), under which other views of Tavistock on adjacent pages are mentioned.
Technical notes:
The leaf is rubbed and stained halfway down the outer edge, where a significant loss has been made good. This appears to have been caused by proximity to the brass clasp formerly set into the back cover.

Matthew Imms
June 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Still Tower, Tavistock Abbey, beside the River Tavy 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-still-tower-tavistock-abbey-beside-the-river-tavy-r1147216, accessed 18 April 2024.