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 East 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dryburgh Abbey from the East’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 70 Recto:
Dryburgh Abbey from the East 1831
D26052
Turner Bequest CCLXVII 72
Pencil on off-white wove writing paper, 113 x 185 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘72’ bottom left inverted and ‘271’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVII – 72’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view of Dryburgh Abbey, made with the sketchbook inverted and continuing on folio 69 verso (D26052; CCLXVII 71a), has been regarded as one of three sketches that formed the basis of Turner’s watercolour, Dryburgh Abbey circa 1832 (Tate N05241),1 made as an illustration to volume 5 of Sir Walter Scott’s Poetical Works.2 However, despite the compositional similarity, and the fact that the abbey looks similar in the watercolour, this is in fact a view from the east rather than the south.

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.428 no.1078.
2
Lyles 1992, p.44.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Dryburgh Abbey from the 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-east-r1134420, accessed 26 April 2024.