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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North Wales 1799-1801 > Lancashire and North Wales Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Whalley Abbey: The Ruins, with the West Gate 1799

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Whalley Abbey: The Ruins, with the West Gate’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 44 Recto:
Whalley Abbey: The Ruins, with the West Gate 1799
D01983
Turner Bequest XLV 43
Pencil on white wove paper, 225 x 329 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘43’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XLV-43’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner used this drawing, made with the page turned horizontally, as the basis for his finished watercolour (private collection),1 engraved in 1800 for Thomas Dunham Whitaker’s History of Whalley (Tate impression: T05927). The tower of the parish church of St Mary is visible to the left of the gatehouse. Other views of the Abbey are on folios 31 verso, 34 verso and 35 verso (D01961, D01967, D01969), and 45 recto (D01984; Turner Bequest XLV 44).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.332 no.287.
Technical notes:
The drawing is rubbed, with blue and brown paint smears.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Whalley Abbey: The Ruins, with the West Gate 1799 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-whalley-abbey-the-ruins-with-the-west-gate-r1177859, accessed 25 April 2024.