By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
Engraved by Miller after Turner. ( The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott. Rawlinson 503. Wilton 1080.)
In The Elements of Drawing (1857), Ruskin recommends careful study of this engraving which he describes as 'peculiarly desirable' ( Works, 15.76). He was familiar with the original Turner watercolour before he ever owned one of his own, as he records in Praeterita: 'I was not the least hindered by the beauty of Mr. Windus's Llanberis or Melrose from being quite happy when my father at last gave me, not for a beginning of Turner collection, but for a specimen of Turner's work... the "Richmond Bridge, Surrey"' ( Works, 35.254).
J.M.W. Turner 1775-1851
Melrose Abbey c.1832
Watercolour, 10.1x15.5cm
Exhibitions: MBG 1832
Engraving:
Engraved by W. Miller, 1833
Steel engraving, 8.7x13.7cm
Engraved for Scott's 'Poetical Works', 1834
Provenance: Robert Cadell; Henry Vaughan, who bequeathed it to the gallery, 1900
Further Comments: 'Melrose Abbey' is an illustration in Scott's 'Lay of the Last Minstrel', 1822.
Collection: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh