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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North Wales 1799-1801 > Lancashire and North Wales Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Whalley Abbey Seen across the River Calder 1799

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Whalley Abbey Seen across the River Calder’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 34 Verso:
Whalley Abbey Seen across the River Calder 1799
D01967
Turner Bequest XLV 34a
Pencil on white wove paper, 225 x 329 mm
Watermark ‘1794 | J Whatman’
Blind-stamped lower right with Turner Bequest monogram
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the page turned horizontally, this was used as the basis for the finished watercolour (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool),1 engraved in 1800 for Thomas Dunham Whitaker’s History of Whalley (Tate impression: T05929). The Abbey was a Cistercian house, first consecrated in 1306, with construction continuing throughout the fourteenth century. The view is taken from the Long Walk on the left or town bank of the river. The inner, or north-east, gatehouse, of 1480, is visible at the right, beyond the mill. The house to its left is known as the Abbot’s Lodging. Further drawings of Whalley Abbey in this book are on folios 31 verso and 35 verso (D01961, D01969), and folios 44 recto and 45 recto (D01983, D01984; Turner Bequest XLV 43, 44).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.332 no.289, reproduced.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Whalley Abbey Seen across the River Calder 1799 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 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-whalley-abbey-seen-across-the-river-calder-r1177842, accessed 20 April 2024.