This mixed media work is closely related to an unpublished etching/aquatint (Levinson 25, c1940) of an identical subject and roughly similar size by Piper, for which it may have been the preparatory drawing (Levinson states that a few proof copies of the print survive, some of which are hand-coloured, with an example of the latter reproduced in Richard Ingrams, 'Piper's Places', plate 68).

Work by the draughtsman and printmaker John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) was an influence, in terms of both style and subject matter, on John Piper both during the late-1930s/1940s and at various other stages in his career, and is often discussed and illustrated in the artist's writings - these reveal that Cotman's etchings and watercolours of Byland Abbey, dating from the early 1800s, were well-known to Piper.

We are very grateful to Rev. Dr Stephen Laird FSA for preparing this catalogue entry.