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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales 1798 > Hereford Court Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Malmesbury: The South Porch of the Abbey 1798

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Malmesbury: The South Porch of the Abbey’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Recto:
Malmesbury: The South Porch of the Abbey 1798
D01258
Turner Bequest XXXVIII 9
Pencil on white wove paper, 229 x 332 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘X’ top right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘9’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XXXVIII 9’ bottom left, descending vertically
Although severely weathered, the south porch at Malmesbury remains, in Nikolaus Pevsner’s words, one of ‘the best pieces of Norman sculpture and decoration in England’.1 This is the beginning of a careful study of it, in which little more than general outlines and some mouldings have been completed.
Made with the page turned horizontally, this is one of a sequence of twelve drawings of Malmesbury in the present book; see under folio 2 recto (D01252; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 3).
1
Nikolaus Pevsner, Wiltshire, The Buildings of England, Harmondsworth 1963, p.289.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Sir Richard Colt Hoare Bart’; a smear of blue colour; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram. For Colt Hoare see under folio 3 recto (D01253; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 4).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Malmesbury: The South Porch of the Abbey 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-malmesbury-the-south-porch-of-the-abbey-r1173150, accessed 27 April 2024.