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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Helmsley Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Stone Pillar (?or Broken Cross), with Distant Hills 1801

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Stone Pillar (?or Broken Cross), with Distant Hills’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 36 Verso:
A Stone Pillar (?or Broken Cross), with Distant Hills 1801
D02522
Turner Bequest LIII 36a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 162 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the page turned horizontally, the upright stone here appears to be the shaft of a gothic cross, from which the cross itself has been broken off. Such crosses are common in Britain, especially in the North, and Turner occasionally drew them; see the contemporary Scotch Lakes sketchbook (Tate D03257–D03258; Turner Bequest LVI 175a–176).
The slight outline on the ridge of hill just to the right of the pillar may indicate the same building as that on folios 35 verso and 37 recto opposite (D02520, D02523).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Stone Pillar (?or Broken Cross), with Distant Hills 1801 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-a-stone-pillar-or-broken-cross-with-distant-hills-r1178544, accessed 27 April 2024.