J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales and the Marches 1792-4 > Drawings and Watercolours Connected with ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Llanthony Abbey from Above ('View of Bath from Kingsdown Hill') 1792

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Llanthony Abbey from Above ('View of Bath from Kingsdown Hill')’ 1792
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Llanthony Abbey from Above (‘View of Bath from Kingsdown Hill’) 1792
D00368
Turner Bequest XXII O
Pencil on white wove paper, 210 x 272 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[...] Kingsdown Georges Road’ bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘XXII – O’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg transcribes the first letter of the inscription as P; it is no longer decipherable but was probably a B. A watercolour of the same subject, known as Bath from the Kingsdown Road, is in a private collection. However, the drawing does not seem to show the substantial city of Bath. A ruined tower is visible in a wooded valley, seen from high on a craggy hillside. Despite the inscription, and the traditional title of the related watercolour, it is tempting to identify the subject as Llanthony Abbey seen from the side of the valley above it. Although Finberg listed the sheet with drawings from Turner’s first Midland tour, in 1794, it is stylistically compatible with the Welsh tour of 1792, and the type of inscription corresponds to those on drawings from this group.
Technical notes:
There are strips of grey wash along the top, left and bottom, slightly askew from the edges, perhaps from Turner’s having worked on another drawing resting on this one.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘?Llanthony Abbey from Above (‘View of Bath from Kingsdown Hill’) 1792 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-llanthony-abbey-from-above-view-of-bath-from-kingsdown-hill-r1141123, accessed 25 April 2024.