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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Monro School c.1794-8 > Collaborations with Thomas Girtin for Dr ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Savoy Chapel ?1796

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin, ‘London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Savoy Chapel’ ?1796
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Thomas Girtin 1775–1802
London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Savoy Chapel ?1796
D36523
Turner Bequest CCCLXXV 2
Pencil and grey and grey-blue wash on white wove paper, 281 x 207 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXXV – 2’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Provenance:
Probably commissioned by Dr Thomas Monro
Monro’s posthumous sale, Christie’s, London, 26 June 1833 (probably in 98, as one of four views of ‘Ruins of the Savoy Palace’ by Turner)
Bought by or on behalf of Turner
The pencil work is by Girtin. Other views of the Savoy Chapel ruins by Girtin and Turner are in the collections of the Clonterbrook Trustees at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven,1 and elsewhere.
This is probably one of four views of ‘Ruins of the Savoy Palace’, sold at Monro’s Sale, Christie’s, London, 26 June 1833 (98) as by Turner and bought by him; see Tate D36498 (Turner Bequest CCCLXXIV 20), Tate D36526 (Turner Bequest CCCLXXV 5), and also Tate D36501 (Turner Bequest CCCLXXIV 23).
1
Thomas Girtin and David Loshak, The Art of Thomas Girtin, London 1954, fig.21.
Technical notes:
The sheet is discoloured from prolonged exposure, and has become detached from its mount (roughly cut from an album), which has been separately accessioned as Tate D40488. The ruled pencil line on the latter, framing the sheet, corresponds with the type of mount used in the two Monro albums at Tate (Turner Bequest CCCLXXIII, CCCLXXIV).1
1
See ibid., p.150 no.119 (ii).
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram. Laid down on album page inscribed in a later hand ‘114’.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Savoy Chapel ?1796 by Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin’, 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-thomas-girtin-london-the-interior-of-the-ruins-of-the-savoy-r1141248, accessed 25 April 2024.