This sketch is based on a view of Kirkstall Abbey in the Tweed and Lakes sketchbook. There the view is of the south aisle and nave from the south transept, but in this study Turner has reversed the whole , perhaps contemplating the process involved when an image. The romantic ruins seem to be the setting for a nativity subject. This is confirmed by the figure groups sketched above the main design, where a woman is seen cradling and wrapping a baby. The style suggests a date of between 1800 and 1805, a period when Turner frequently made tentative drafts for historical subjects, one of which resulted in his 1803 oil of the Holy Family (T1).
Gallery label, September 2004
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