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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner An Abbey or Church, ?Haddington Church 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘An Abbey or Church, ?Haddington Church’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Recto:
An Abbey or Church, ?Haddington Church 1831
D25664
Turner Bequest CCLXV 13
Pencil on white wove paper, 59 x 96 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘13’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXV 13’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg has suggested that this building may be Jedburgh Abbey,1 which is possible considering the inscription, ‘Jed’, on folio 10 verso of this sketchbook (D25060). If so the view would be from the south-west. For Turner’s most finished drawing of the abbey and further references see the sketch in the Abbotsford sketchbook (Tate D26039; Turner Bequest CCLXVII 65a).
An alternative identification is Haddington Church, which has a square tower such as this one and was sketched several times by Turner. See folio 24 (D25684) in this sketchbook, and the Abbotsford sketchbook (Tate D26003; Turner Bequest CCLXVII 45a).

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.851.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘An Abbey or Church, ?Haddington Church 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-an-abbey-or-church-haddington-church-r1134028, accessed 25 April 2024.