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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales and Isle of Wight 1795-1800 > Smaller South Wales Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Interior of Ewenny Priory, near Bridgend, Glamorgan; Study of a Recumbent Figure in Effigy 1795

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Interior of Ewenny Priory, near Bridgend, Glamorgan; Study of a Recumbent Figure in Effigy’ 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Recto:
The Interior of Ewenny Priory, near Bridgend, Glamorgan; Study of a Recumbent Figure in Effigy 1795
D00472
Turner Bequest XXV 11
Pencil on white wove paper, 130 x 205 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXV 11’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner used this drawing as the basis for the finished watercolour he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1797 under the title Trancept of Ewenny Priory, Glamorganshire (National Museum Wales, Cardiff).1 Finberg notes a further version of the subject as a copy of the Cardiff picture by another hand. The building is almost all that survives of a Benedictine monastery founded in the mid-twelfth century by William de Londres. Given the dramatic force with which Turner invested his watercolour, and the vividly realised details of the architecture, this sketch is surprisingly slight.
The figure noted in the top right corner of the sheet is that of the effigy on the tomb under the right-hand arch, which is thought to commemorate Maurice de Londres, son of the founder, though it has also been identified as Sir Paganus de Turbeville, of Coity Castle nearby.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.325 no.227 (pl.28).
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Interior of Ewenny Priory, near Bridgend, Glamorgan; Study of a Recumbent Figure in Effigy 1795 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-the-interior-of-ewenny-priory-near-bridgend-glamorgan-study-r1140791, accessed 31 October 2025.