Joseph Mallord William Turner Kirkstall Abbey, from the River c.1824
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 54 Recto:
Kirkstall Abbey, from the River c.1824
D18390
Turner Bequest CCX 48
Turner Bequest CCX 48
Pencil on white wove paper, 75 x 118 mm
Watermarked ‘Smith & [Allnutt] | 18[22]’
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘48’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCX–48’ bottom right
Watermarked ‘Smith & [Allnutt] | 18[22]’
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘48’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCX–48’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.637, CCX 48, as ‘Kirkstall Abbey, from the river. See Water Colour (173 N.G.) engraved in “River Scenery,” and published 1 August, 1826’.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.94 under no.239.
1976
Werner Hofmann, Andrew Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, p.122 under no.48.
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.385 under no.741.
1980
David Hill, Stanley Warburton, Mary Tussey and others, Turner in Yorkshire, exhibition catalogue, York City Art Gallery 1980, p.90 under no.138.
1981
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Rivers, Harbours and Coasts, London 1981, p.153 under no.58.
1990
Eric Shanes, Turner’s England 1810–38, London 1990, p.111 under no.86, p.284 note 77.
1991
Ian Warrell, Turner: The Fourth Decade: Watercolours 1820–1830, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1991, p.33 under no.15.
1993
Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Impressions de Gran Bretanya i el Continent Europeu / Impresiones de Gran Bretaña y el Continente Europeo, exhibition catalogue, Centre Cultural de la Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona 1993, p.294 under no.35.
1994
Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Aquarelles et Dessins du Legs Turner: Collection de la Tate Gallery, Londres / Watercolours and Drawings from the Turner Bequest: Collection from the Tate Gallery, London, exhibition catalogue, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi 1994, p.128 under no.35.
2008
David Hill, Turner and Leeds: Image of Industry, Leeds 2008, pp.169, 190 note 30.
This drawing is one of a series of studies of Kirkstall Abbey produced in November or December of 1824 during Turner’s stay at Farnley Hall. Located northwest of Leeds on the banks of the River Aire, Kirkstall Abbey was established at its present site in 1152 as a Cistercian monastery.1 It was dissolved in 1539 under the auspices of Henry VIII.
To take this sketch Turner positioned himself in the same spot he had occupied in 1797 to produce a watercolour of Kirkstall Abbey for Edward Lascelles, son of the first Earl of Harewood (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge).2 Enjoying the Viscount’s patronage, Turner stayed at Harewood House that year to undertake commissions and to conduct a first tour of the north of England. The artist was twenty-two then, and just short of fifty when he produced the present sketch.
This pencil drawing and others (Tate D18478; Turner Bequest CCX 93a and Tate D18390–D18391, D18393–D18399, D18409–D18416; Turner Bequest CCX 48–48a, 50–53, 58a–62) were also developed into a highly finished watercolour for W.B. Cooke’s Rivers of England, a print series published between 1823 and 1824 (Tate D18146; Turner Bequest CCVIII M and Tate impressions T04810, T04811, T06371).3
For other of Turner’s sketches and studies of Kirkstall Abbey see the North of England sketchbook of 1797 (Tate D00916–D00922; Turner Bequest XXXIV 10a–16); the Tweed and Lakes sketchbook of the same date (Tate D01083, D01083; Turner Bequest XXXV 2, 81); the Kirkstall sketchbook of 1808 (Tate D07258–D07273, D07278; Turner Bequest CVII 2–16, 21); and finally the Kirkstall Lock sketchbook of 1809 (Tate D12254–D12257, D12260; Turner Bequest CLV13–16, 19).
Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2015
‘Kirkstall Abbey: History’, The Cistercians in Yorkshire, accessed 24 February 2015, http://cistercians.shef.ac.uk/kirkstall/history
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.324 no.224; see also Hill 2008, p.169.
For more information see Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘‘Rivers of England’ Watercolours and Related Works c.1822–4’, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/rivers-of-england-watercolours-and-related-works-r1146362
How to cite
Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Kirkstall Abbey, from the River c.1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2016, https://www