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 Kelso Abbey: The Ruins Seen from the North 1797

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Kelso Abbey: The Ruins Seen from the North’ 1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 62 Recto:
Kelso Abbey: The Ruins Seen from the North 1797
D00967
Turner Bequest XXXIV 58
Pencil on white wove paper, 270 x 210 mm
Watermark ‘1794 | J Whatman’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXXIV 58’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The Tironensian (i.e. Benedictine) abbey at Kelso was built in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The whole structure was severely damaged in the Reformation, though the church continued in use by the parish until the 1770s when it was replaced by a new, octagonal building. This is one of two studies made at Kelso in this book; the other is on folio 63 recto (D00968; Turner Bequest XXXIV 59). Turner did not produce a watercolour of the abbey, though much later he made a small illustration showing a view of the whole town (currently untraced),1 engraved in 1833 (Tate impressions: T04948, T05137) for Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.427 no.1074, reproduced.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
January 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Kelso Abbey: The Ruins Seen from the North 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-kelso-abbey-the-ruins-seen-from-the-north-r1150123, accessed 25 April 2024.