Joseph Mallord William Turner

St Agatha’s Church and Abbey, Easby, from the South-East, Richmond in the Distance

1816

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Yorkshire 4 Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 125 x 206 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D11474
Turner Bequest CXLVII 21

Catalogue entry

Here Turner records St Agatha’s Abbey, Easby from the south-east, near Easby Hall, with the small church of St Agatha in the foreground, and the keep of Richmond Castle in the centre distance. The sketch served as the basis of a watercolour study or ‘colour-beginning’ (Tate D25153; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 31). Turner sketched a similar view in the Yorkshire 2 sketchbook (Tate D11238; Turner Bequest CXLV 119), which accompanied him on the same tour.
St Agatha’s Abbey, Easby, stands on the north bank of the River Swale about three quarters of a mile downstream (east) of Richmond. It was founded by Roald, Constable of Richmond Castle, in 1155 for a community of Premonstratensian canons and was suppressed in 1536. The extensive and substantial remains are in the care of English Heritage and open to the public.

David Hill
February 2009

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