Joseph Mallord William Turner

Waverley Abbey: The Ruins of the Cellarium

c.1792

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Pencil Drawings of Oxford and the Home Counties
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 215 × 273 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D00178
Turner Bequest XVII C

Catalogue entry

Although the ruins are largely masked by creeper, they seem to be those of the Cellarium of Waverley Abbey, near Farnham, Surrey, seen from the banks of the River Wey (looking north). A watercolour of the same ruin seen from the north is erroneously titled Glastonbury Abbey (private collection).1 The early twelfth-century Cistercian foundation at Waverley was the first house of its order in England. The structure, of Bargate ironstone and white limestone, is part of a large site on which most of the principal buildings including the Church have been completely destroyed. It is now managed by English Heritage.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.303 no.30, reproduced.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

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