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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devonshire Rivers, No.3, and Wharfedale ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rievaulx Abbey from Rievaulx Bridge on the River Rye 1816

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Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Verso:
Rievaulx Abbey from Rievaulx Bridge on the River Rye 1816
D09877
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 75a
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘C[...]’ bottom centre, ‘wood’ centre right, and ‘D Rushing’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘925’ bottom left
Inscribed in pencil ‘119’ bottom centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rievaulx Abbey is seen to the north-north-east up the River Rye from Rievaulx Bridge. The view is now largely obscured by trees, but the bridge survives much as shown here. There is a study of the abbey and Ryedale on folio 24 recto (D09853; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 55), under which other views are discussed, including a watercolour (Tate N05615) partly based on the present sketch.

In terms of its present foliation, this drawing was made with the sketchbook inverted.
Technical notes:
The recto (D09876; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 75) was one of eight drawings from this sketchbook lent to Oxford University in the nineteenth century (for the others see the sketchbook’s Introduction). Each has a large pencil number inscribed on the back which presumably relates to this loan, although they do not tally with the Oxford catalogue numbers; there is dark staining all over this side from when it was stuck down to display the recto. In this case the number is evidently ‘119’ (rather than ‘611’ if read the other way up) by comparison with the others, for example ‘118’ on folio 17 verso (D09879; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 76a).

Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Rievaulx Abbey from Rievaulx Bridge on the River Rye 1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-rievaulx-abbey-from-rievaulx-bridge-on-the-river-rye-r1147370, accessed 25 April 2024.