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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North of England 1797-1801 > North of England Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lindisfarne, Holy Island: The Interior of the Priory Church 1797

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lindisfarne, Holy Island: The Interior of the Priory Church’ 1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 53 Recto:
Lindisfarne, Holy Island: The Interior of the Priory Church 1797
D00958
Turner Bequest XXXIV 50
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 270 x 210 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘50’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXXIV 50’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This drawing shows a view looking east along the north aisle towards the crossing. Turner was evidently much impressed by Lindisfarne, and made five detailed drawings of the ruins, the others being on folios 55 recto, 56 recto, 57 recto and 58 recto (D00960–D00963; Turner Bequest XXXIV 52–55), one of which (D00962) he developed into a subject for the Liber Studiorum (see Tate D08115; Turner Bequest CXVI N). A general view from the shore to the south on folio 54 recto (D00959; Turner Bequest XXXIV 51) became a plate in the series of Picturesque Views in England and Wales; the watercolour (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)1 was engraved in 1830 (Tate impressions: T04558, T04559, T06089).The priory church was built around 1100, almost contemporaneously with Durham Cathedral, of which it was a cell, and shares its salient stylistic features, though on a somewhat smaller scale.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.396 no.819, reproduced.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
January 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Lindisfarne, Holy Island: The Interior of the Priory Church 1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lindisfarne-holy-island-the-interior-of-the-priory-church-r1150114, accessed 19 April 2024.