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

At the upper register Turner has produced a swift jotting of Kirkstall Abbey, a twelfth-century monastery situated on the River Aire near Leeds (see Tate D18390; Turner Bequest CCX 48). With the sketchbook turned upside-down, the artist has also drawn the interior of the Abbey’s stone vaulted Chapter House located in the eastern range. The monks gathered there daily to attend the chapter meeting, so called because a chapter from the Rule of St Benedict was read aloud whilst the monks sat on wooden or stone benches around the walls.1 Turner visited this room in 1797, producing a detailed drawing of it in the North of England sketchbook (Tate D00917; Turner Bequest XXXIV 11).