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 Valle Crucis Abbey, with Dinas Brân Beyond 1798

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Valle Crucis Abbey, with Dinas Brân Beyond’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 87 Recto:
Valle Crucis Abbey, with Dinas Brân Beyond 1798
D01309
Turner Bequest XXXVIII 55
Pencil on white wove paper, 229 x 332 mm
Watermark ‘1794 | J Whatman’
Blind-stamped lower centre with Turner Bequest monogram
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘55’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XXXVIII 55’ bottom left, descending vertically
The ruins of the thirteenth-century Cistercian foundation of Valle Crucis stand on the banks of the Afon Eglwyseg, a tributary of the Dee just west of Llangollen. They had become popular in the later eighteenth century with travellers in search of picturesque sites in North Wales, and Turner had already visited them in 1794 in the course of his Midland tour; that visit had resulted in an impressive finished watercolour, which remained in his studio (Tate D00703; Turner Bequest XXVIII R).
This drawing is a more general view than the one he made then, and he used it as the basis for a design for the Picturesque Beauties of England and Wales, engraved 1828 (Tate impressions: T04527, T06078); the finished watercolour is in Manchester Art Gallery.1 Eric Shanes points to another drawing, in the Tabley No.1 sketchbook of 1808 (Tate D06842; Turner Bequest CIII 13), as the basis for this,2 but although it shows a similar view the present drawing is almost certainly Turner’s main source. There are further drawings showing the ancient Welsh fortress-palace of Dinas Brân on the rectos of folios 88–93 (D01310, D01311, D01350, D01312–D01314; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 56, 57, 96, 58, 59, 60).
1
Wilton 1979, p.393 no.799, reproduced.
2
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales 1825–1838, London 1979, p.27.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Valle Crucis Abbey, with Dinas Brân Beyond 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-valle-crucis-abbey-with-dinas-bran-beyond-r1173227, accessed 12 November 2024.