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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Dunbar Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Ruins of Rievaulx Abbey; an Animal Skeleton 1801

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Ruins of Rievaulx Abbey; an Animal Skeleton’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 108 Recto:
The Ruins of Rievaulx Abbey; an Animal Skeleton 1801
D02795
Turner Bequest LIV 108
Pencil and ink on white wove paper prepared with a mauve-pink ground, 115 x 164 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘108’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LIV 108’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg considered this leaf to belong between the present folios 102 verso and 103 recto (D02784, D02785).1 The pencil drawing is part of a series of studies of Rievaulx Abbey; see under folios 1 recto and 102 verso (D02614, D02784).
The pen drawing was superimposed later; Finberg suggested that the skeleton is that of a bullock.2
1
See Finberg 1909, I, pp.139, 140.
2
Ibid., p.140.
Verso:
Blank; washed with a mauve-pink ground; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram bottom left; inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘1002.B’.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Ruins of Rievaulx Abbey; an Animal Skeleton 1801 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-ruins-of-rievaulx-abbey-an-animal-skeleton-r1178981, accessed 31 May 2025.