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 The Ruins of Whalley Abbey 1799

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Ruins of Whalley Abbey’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 50 Recto:
The Ruins of Whalley Abbey 1799
D01989
Turner Bequest XLV 49
Pencil on white wove paper, 225 x 329 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘W’ left of centre, on wall near gateway
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed in pencil ‘49’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XLV-49’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a view of Whalley Abbey ruins taken from closer to the main gateway than that on folio 34 verso (D01967). Unlike that drawing, this, although perhaps the handsomest of all the compositions featuring the Abbey, was not used as the basis for a finished design.
Finberg’s Inventory duplicates this drawing as page ‘51. A castle’,1 to which the additional Tate accession number D01991 was initially assigned.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.113.
Technical notes:
The leaf is discoloured from exposure; it is formed of coarser paper than the bulk of the sketchbook; see also folios 32 and 36 (D01962–D01963), and 42 (D01981; Turner Bequest XLV 41b).
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by a later hand in pencil ‘No 30’.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Ruins of Whalley Abbey 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-the-ruins-of-whalley-abbey-r1177868, accessed 24 April 2024.