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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North of England 1797-1801 > North of England Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Tower of a Medieval Building 1797

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Tower of a Medieval Building’ 1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
The Tower of a Medieval Building 1797
D00927
Turner Bequest XXXIV 21
Pencil on white wove paper, 270 x 210 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘21’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXXIV 21’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a very slight sketch; the subject is uncertain. The tower rapidly outlined here has some similarity to that of Kirkstall Abbey. David Hill tentatively suggests either Ripon or Fountains Abbey.
Hill proposes1 that folio 94 recto (D01000; Turner Bequest XXXIV 89), a view of the lay brothers’ dormitory and refectory at Fountains Abbey, originally followed this sheet.
1
See Hill 1996, pp.191, 192.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
January 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Tower of a Medieval Building 1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-tower-of-a-medieval-building-r1150083, accessed 25 April 2024.