JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (BRITISH 1775-1851)TRAVELLERS PASSING A RUINED ABBEY IN SQUALLY WEATHERWatercolour on paper18.5 x 26cm (7? x 10in.)Executed circa 1791Provenance:The collection of N. H. HindeHis Sale, Christie's, London, Fine English Drawings and Watercolours, 12 July 1988, lot 65Exhibited:London, Tate Britain, Turner & Constable: Rivals and Originals, 27 November 2025 - 12 April 2026, no. 5Literature:A. Concannon, ed., et al., Turner & Constable: Rivals and Originals, London, 2025, p. 71. ill., no. 5The present watercolour, which was included in the recent exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London 2026, no. 5, Turner and Constable, Rivals and Originals, was executed circa 1791 when Turner was around sixteen years old. A precocious talent, Turner was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools aged fourteen and while still a student became a regular exhibitor, exhibiting his first watercolour there in 1790 and his first oil painting in 1793.The subject of the ruined abbey may be an early attempt at a capriccio view, perhaps inspired by a subject Turner came across when staying with the Narraway Family, friends of his father's, in Bristol or inspired by his visits to Margate, Kent where he attended Coleman's school. Turner has contrasted the crumbling ruins of the Abbey with a gleaming new church glimpsed through the archway, the foliage of the tree on the left-hand side are typical of his early watercolours. The group of figures buffeted by a gust of wind, whilst endeavouring to restrain a misbehaving dog, are reminiscent of those executed by the humorous artist Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827). Interestingly in 1791, Turner's master Thomas Malton (1748-1804) was engaged in reproducing images after Rowlandson. Stylistically it is similar to Windy Day, Lullingstone Park, Kent, see A. Wilton, The Life and Works of J.M.W. Turner, London, 1979, no. 22.
Watercolour on paper

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