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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1834 > Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh 1834

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Recto:
Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh 1834
D26101
Turner Bequest CCLXVIII 4
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 181 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘7’ centre right
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘4’ bottom left descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVIII – 4’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts the east end of Edinburgh’s Holyrood Abbey with the impressive tracery of the large east window. To the right is the northern wall of the building, with its ‘7’ buttresses and the tower at the north-west corner. There are studies of the abbey from the other side on folio 3 verso (D26100), where Turner also drew Holyrood Palace. These sketches were probably made on 1 October when Turner is reported to have sketched other sites nearby.1
There are light brown stains across the right of this page.

Thomas Ardill
January 2011

1
Robert Cadell, Diary 1834, Wednesday 1 October 1834, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh MS 21024, folio 42.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2011, 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-holyrood-abbey-edinburgh-r1136029, accessed 25 April 2024.