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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Abbotsford Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Views from Springwood Park, Kelso 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views from Springwood Park, Kelso’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 55 Recto:
Views from Springwood Park, Kelso 1831
D26022
Turner Bequest CCLXVII 57
Pencil on off-white wove writing paper, 113 x 185 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘57’ bottom left inverted and ‘271’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVII – 57’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The two sketches on this page, drawn with the sketchbook inverted and continued slightly on folio 54 verso (D26021; CCLXVII 56a), were made from Springwood Park to the west of Kelso across the River Tweed. The larger sketch looks east towards Kelso with the abbey just to the right of centre, and with Kelso Bridge to the right of that. In the foreground is a curve of the Tweed near its confluence with the River Teviot.
The sketch across the top of the page may be of Springwood House, belonging in 1831 to Sir John James Scott Douglass. The house (now demolished) stood in the centre of Springwood Park and was built in the mid-eighteenth century with alterations in the 1820s.1 There may also be a sketch of the house on folio 54 verso (D26021; CCLXVII 56a) and of the house and gate to the estate on folio 55 verso (D26023; CCLXVII 57a).
Turner made these sketches on 10 August 1831 when he walked to Roxburgh Castle after having sketched Kelso Abbey.2 For further information on Turner’s visit to Kelso see folio 19 verso (D25962; CCLXVII 19a).

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Watercolours of the house, attributed to the architect of the 1820s additions, James Gillespie Graham, show its appearance: ‘Kelso, Springwood House’, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland, accessed 23 June 2009, http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/112547/digital_images/kelso+springwood+house/.
2
See, Robert Cadell, ‘Abbotsford Diary’, Wednesday 10 August 1831, National Library of Scotland, MS Acc.5188, Box 1, folio 111; transcribed in Gerald E. Finley, ‘J.M.W. Turner and Sir Walter Scott: Iconography of a Tour’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol.31, 1972, p.384.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Views from Springwood Park, Kelso 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2009, 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-views-from-springwood-park-kelso-r1134390, accessed 05 April 2026.