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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant View of Battle Abbey from the West c.1806-10

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 45 Recto:
Distant View of Battle Abbey from the West circa 1806–10
D05662
Turner Bequest XCI 45
Pencil on cream wove paper, prepared with a buff wash, 128 x 201 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘45’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XCI 45’ bottom left, descending vertically
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram, bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Despite Finberg’s identification as Herstmonceux Castle and Edward Croft-Murray’s as Pevensey Castle in a pencil annotation to a copy of Finberg now in Tate’s Library, it seems more likely that this and a similar view on folio 46 (D05663) depict Battle Abbey, seen from the west with the gatehouse on the left. Turner drew a more expansive view from a similar angle, extending further to each side, in his Views in Sussex sketchbook (Tate D10321–D10322; Turner Bequest CXXXVIII 2–3) and used it for his watercolour Battle Abbey (private collection)1 painted for John Fuller and engraved in aquatint by Joseph Stadler for Lour Large Coloured Views in Sussex.
Views of Battle Abbey in this sketchbook probably run to folio 54 (D05671).
1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.349 no.435.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
March 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Distant View of Battle Abbey from the West c.1806–10 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2011, 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-distant-view-of-battle-abbey-from-the-west-r1130973, accessed 29 March 2024.