Joseph Mallord William Turner

Kirkstall Abbey: The South Aisle and Nave Seen from the South Transept

1797

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Tweed and Lakes Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 370 × 274 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D01083
Turner Bequest XXXV 81

Catalogue entry

Finberg listed the subject of this leaf as ‘Fountains Abbey’1 and it was duly bound in sequence with the other studies made at Fountains in this book on folios 10 recto and 11 recto (Tate D01010, D01082; Turner Bequest XXXV 7, 80). The ruins are, however, those of Kirkstall Abbey, not Fountains, and so the leaf belongs as the ‘missing’ folio 7 (see the concordance notes in the sketchbook’s Introduction).

Turner scholar David Hill associates the composition study Tate D04169 (Turner Bequest LXX R) with this view.2 Other views at Kirkstall are on folios 5 recto and 6 recto (D01005, D01006; Turner Bequest XXXV 2, 3) of this book; those in the North of England sketchbook are Tate D00916–D00922 (Turner Bequest XXXIV 10a–16). See also Tate D08263 (Turner Bequest CXXI H).

Finberg stated in 1909 that the leaf was ‘now withdrawn’ from the long-standing Fourth Loan Collection of Turner Bequest works,3 but the catalogues for the 1906 Manchester and 1912 Newcastle showings of the selection appear to describe the present work in similar terms; the full itinerary of subsequent venues is given in the exhibition history here, albeit with reservations in this instance.

But see correct identification in White 1896, p.15; see also Manchester exhibition catalogue 1906, p.[10], and Newcastle exhibition catalogue 1912, p.8.

Hill 1996, p.26.

Finberg 1909, I, p.77.

Technical notes:

The page is slightly discoloured from exposure when on display, apart from the edges formerly protected by a mount. There are colour trials in the bottom left corner.

Verso:

Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
August 2010

Revised by Matthew Imms
September 2014

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