Joseph Mallord William Turner Bolton Abbey and the River Wharfe, from the South 1816
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Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Verso:
Bolton Abbey and the River Wharfe, from the South 1816
D09885
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 81
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 81
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Inscribed in an unknown hand in pencil ‘Sketch of Bolton Abbey | (about 1800)’ centre, ascending vertically
Inscribed in an unknown hand in pencil ‘Sketch of Bolton Abbey | (about 1800)’ centre, ascending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (525 (b)).
References
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.254 no.12, 633 no.525 (b). as ‘Sketch of Bolton Abbey (about 1800)’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.383, CXXXIV 81, as ‘Bolton Abbey ... See Water Colour engraved in “England and Wales.”’.
1910
Alexander J. Finberg, Turner’s Sketches and Drawings, London 1910, pp.109–11, pl.LXIV (cropped to edge of drawing).
1979
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales 1825–1838, London 1979, p.156, as CXXXIV ‘81a’.
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.391 under no.788.
1980
David Hill, Stanley Warburton, Mary Tussey and others, Turner in Yorkshire, exhibition catalogue, York City Art Gallery 1980, pp.30 under no.33, p.92 under no.144, as CXXXIV ‘81a’. and as c.1815 and c.1814–15 respectively.
1990
Frank Milner, J.M.W. Turner: Paintings in Merseyside Collections: Walker Art Gallery; Sudley Art Gallery; Williamson Art Gallery; Lady Lever Art Gallery; Liverpool University Art Gallery, Liverpool 1990, p.23 under no.11, reproduced (cropped to edge of drawing).
1996
David Hill, Turner in the North: A Tour through Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, the Scottish Borders, the Lake District, Lancashire and Lincolnshire in the Year 1797, New Haven and London 1996, p.202 note 12, as 1816.
Finberg noted that the present double-page sketch is the basis for the watercolour Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire of about 1825 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight),1 engraved in 1827 for the series Picturesque Views in England and Wales.2 He made a lengthy analysis of the differences between the present sketch and the watercolour, where ‘almost every detail has been altered’ to create ‘a whole complex of visible harmony.’3
Technical notes:
Both pages of this composition were removed from the sketchbook for mounting and display. In the present case the left-hand half (127 mm) of the original sheet is missing, with the corners trimmed diagonally, and has been made good with slightly darker paper. The inscription is at the edge of the remnant of the original sheet. There is a broad, well-preserved margin to the left of the drawing and undamaged strips above and below which were protected by the mount, but the exposed area has darkened. A pencil mark beyond the top left of the drawing was presumably made as a rough indication of the portion to be left visible when mounted. The sketchbook was mutilated in a similar way to provide an exhibitable one-and-a-half-page panorama of Leeds, now bound as folios 48 verso and 49 recto (D09883, D09884; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 79–80).
Matthew Imms
July 2014
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Bolton Abbey and the River Wharfe, from the South 1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www