Joseph Mallord William Turner

The principal sketch shows Kirkstall Abbey, a twelfth-century Cistercian monastery, from a northeasterly perspective. Kirkstall Bridge (Tate D07272–D07273, D07278; Turner Bequest CVII 15–16, 21) can be seen crossing the Aire at left and atop the ridge is Armley Park, the estate of the wealthy Leeds cloth manufacturer Benjamin Gott (1762–1840).1 At top left is a slight sketch of the same view taken at a greater distance and inscribed ‘Old Wall at [...]’. Part of the Abbey nave is rendered at top right.

These sketches are associated with Turner’s watercolour of Kirkstall Abbey produced for W.B. Cooke’s Rivers of England series (Tate D18146; Turner Bequest CCVIII M and Tate impressions T04810, T04811, T06371).2 See also Tate D18390; Turner Bequest CCX 48.