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 Kelso Abbey, North Transept 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Kelso Abbey, North Transept’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 56 Recto:
Kelso Abbey, North Transept 1831
D26024
Turner Bequest CCLXVII 58
Pencil on off-white wove writing paper, 113 x 185 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘58’ bottom left inverted and ‘271’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVII – 58’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner began his sketches of Kelso Abbey on the morning of 10 August 1831 with three meticulous studies from close quarters.1 The present page, which is inverted, shows the north transept – or north-west transept, as Kelso is unique in having transepts at the west and east. Turner has paid close attention to the diamond-patterned pediment above the Norman arched doorway, and has drawn a section of an arch at the top left of the page to record in detail its formation.
At the right of the page, with the sketchbook turned to the left, is a much less detailed sketch of a ruin. This is probably part of the nearby Roxburgh Castle which Turner also visited that day and drew on the opposite sketchbook page (folio 55 verso; D26023; CCLXVII 57a).
Other close-up studies are on folios 56 verso and 57 (D26025, DD26026; CCLXVII 58a, 59). See folio 19 verso (D25962; CCLXVII 19a) for more information on Turner’s visit to Kelso.

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
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, ‘Kelso Abbey, North Transept 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-kelso-abbey-north-transept-r1134392, accessed 23 April 2024.