Joseph Mallord William Turner

Kelso Abbey: The Ruins Seen from the North

1797

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

Not on display

Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
North of England Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 270 × 210 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D00967
Turner Bequest XXXIV 58

Catalogue entry

The Tironensian (i.e. Benedictine) abbey at Kelso was built in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The whole structure was severely damaged in the Reformation, though the church continued in use by the parish until the 1770s when it was replaced by a new, octagonal building. This is one of two studies made at Kelso in this book; the other is on folio 63 recto (D00968; Turner Bequest XXXIV 59). Turner did not produce a watercolour of the abbey, though much later he made a small illustration showing a view of the whole town (currently untraced),1 engraved in 1833 (Tate impressions: T04948, T05137) for Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.427 no.1074, reproduced.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
January 2013

Read full Catalogue entry

Explore

You might like

Left Right

In the shop

Browse the shop