Joseph Mallord William Turner

In this drawing, made with the page turned vertically, Egglestone Abbey is seen from across the River Tees; other views of the site are on folios 29 recto and 95 recto (D00934, D01001; Turner Bequest XXXIV 28, 90), the latter a rapid and generalised note of the presbytery and canons’ dormitory. Turner visited Egglestone again in 1816 when he was preparing his series of illustrations for Whitaker’s History of Richmondshire, and made a drawing in his Yorkshire 4 sketchbook (Tate D11492; Turner Bequest CXLVII 31a) which almost replicates this composition. From it he derived a finished watercolour for Whitaker (private collection).1 Peter Bower notes that the mill in the foreground was James Cooke’s paper mill, which continued in the family until 1830. On folio 95 recto (D01001; Turner Bequest XXXIV 90) there is a schematic drawing of the interior of a mill, possibly, as Hill suggests,2 Cooke’s.

Verso:

Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.