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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ruins of Elgin Cathedral from the North-East 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ruins of Elgin Cathedral from the North-East’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 138 Recto:
Ruins of Elgin Cathedral from the North-East 1831
D27213
Turner Bequest CCLXXVII 138
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 104 x 163 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘138’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXVII 138’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view of Elgin Cathedral is from the north-east. At the left is the presbytery (drawn as a faint outline), with the remains of its rose window represented as a circle, and at the right is the octagonal chapter house, which Turner drew the inside of on the opposite sketchbook page (folio 137 verso; D24212). At the centre of the page is the outline of the north tower at the western end of the cathedral.
Turner dedicated fourteen pages of the Inverness sketchbook to studies of Elgin Cathedral, see folio 139 (D27215) for references.

Thomas Ardill
May 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Ruins of Elgin Cathedral from the North-East 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2010, 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-ruins-of-elgin-cathedral-from-the-north-east-r1135579, accessed 24 April 2024.