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The West Front of Bath Abbey

image © Victoria Art Gallery Bath & North East Somerset Council | All Rights Reserved

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Date

c.1793

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)

Collection

Victoria Art Gallery, Bath

Description

Turner was very young when he painted this view of the Abbey, only about 18. Turner was one of the most celebrated landscape painters of the 19th century. He trained with Thomas Malton, a draughtsman who produced very popular s of London, Bath and other cities around the country. Malton is well represented in the Gallery's collection, and Turner described him as his 'real master'. Turner started exhibiting pictures at the Royal Academy in London in 1790 when he was just 15. He visited Bath for the first time a year later, and made several more visits. Turner was fascinated by the romantic and picturesque character of old buildings, and would have seen the Abbey as an ideal subject. The shows the influence of Malton in the cool colours used, and the dramatic low viewpoint which emphasises the grandeur of the building. The picture also shows the influence of Turner's friend Thomas Girtin, another celebrated ist. This work demonstrates Turner's growing confidence as an artist. From the 1790s onwards he developed great technical skills and processes which he used to create the highly atmospheric work for which he is so well known. Turner has slightly reduced the size of the houses built up against the Abbey. Dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, these were demolished in the 1820s. Included is the house in which Gainsborough lived and painted during his early years in Bath, just thirty years before Turner arrived. Gainsborough's house is shown to the right of the Abbey. The picture was purchased in 1994 with grant aid from the Art Fund and the MLA / Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund.

Image Licence

All Rights Reserved

Image Credit

image © Victoria Art Gallery Bath & North East Somerset Council

Location

Bath Abbey, Bath, Somerset, England

Country

Medium

Tags

Religious Buildings

Category

Buildings & Architecture

Glossary
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© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform