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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > East Sussex c.1806-20 > Views in Sussex Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Battle Abbey 1810

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Battle Abbey’ 1810
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Battle Abbey 1810
D10321
Turner Bequest CXXXVIII 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 200 x 325 mm
Stamped in black ‘CXXXVIII 2’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Perhaps a right-hand page of the sketchbook, as there are stitch holes on the left.
This view of Battle Abbey from the north-west served as the basis for the watercolour made for John Fuller in 1810 (private collection)1 and aquatinted by Joseph Stadler in Four Large Coloured Views in Sussex privately published circa 1818. While carefully drawn, the drawing has an open foreground and lacks the detail and narrative that Turner added to the watercolour to symbolise the death of King Harold II in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Also from this sketchbook (D10331; Turner Bequest CXXXVIII 11) Turner took the foundation of another watercolour made for Fuller, Battle Abbey, the Spot where Harold Fell (currently untraced)2 engraved by William Bernard Cooke in 1819 for Views in Sussex.
The trees on the right are extended on another leaf from this sketchbook (D10322; Turner Bequest CXXXVIII 3).
Finberg noted ‘Drawing rubbed and paper dirty’. There is a stain (?oil or varnish) at the bottom right corner.
1
Wilton 1979, p.349 no.435.
2
Ibid., p.348 no.423.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
April 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Battle Abbey 1810 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-battle-abbey-r1131366, accessed 17 July 2024.