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 Dryburgh Abbey from the South-East c.1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dryburgh Abbey from the South-East’ c.1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 69 Recto:
Dryburgh Abbey from the South-East 1831
D26050
Turner Bequest CCLXVII 71
Pencil on off-white wove writing paper, 113 x 185 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘71’ bottom left inverted and ‘271’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVII – 71’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of three views of Dryburgh Abbey from the south that formed the basis of Turner’s watercolour illustration to volume 5 of Sir Walter Scott’s Poetical Works, Dryburgh Abbey circa 1832 (Tate N05241);1 see folio 9 (D25942; CCLXVII 9). This sketch, made with the book inverted and continued on folio 68 verso (D26049; CCLXVII 70a), moves to the east of the previous view, so that the south transept of the abbey (the most intact part) is seen from an oblique angle, and more of the chapter house is visible to its right. The Tweed flows in front of and around the abbey, and part of the Eildon Hills are seen at the left of the present page, with Wallace’s monument seen in the distance at the right of folio 68 verso.

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.428 no.1078.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Dryburgh Abbey from the South-East 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-dryburgh-abbey-from-the-south-east-r1134418, accessed 26 April 2024.