ABBOTSFORD is currently hosting an exhibition dedicated to the personal relationship between two of the most famous and influential figures in British history.

JMW Turner is a regular cornerstone of British art exhibitions, but rarely does an exhibition focus on his personal relationships and interactions with his contemporaries.

Turner’s collaborative work with the celebrity author Sir Walter Scott resulted in some of the most beautiful watercolour illustrations ever produced.

Highlights of the exhibition include Turner’s personal painting effects, including his travelling cabinet, spectacles, palette and paint box loaned from the Tate and the Ashmolean Museum.

These treasures have not been on display in Scotland for over a decade.

The Abbotsford Trust is also delighted to be displaying Turner’s ‘Abbotsford’ sketchbook, one of the three hundred or so that the artist used throughout his life.

This is the first time that the Abbotsford sketchbook has returned to Scott’s home since it was carried by Turner himself in August 1831.

In it, Turner recorded his visual impressions of Scott’s home, both inside and out, making it one of the most precious visual sources in Abbotsford’s history, allowing the staff to place features, objects in their collections and even planting schemes just as they were during Sir Walter Scott’s lifetime.

An interactive version of the sketchbook also allows visitors to explore Turner’s sketches of other sites in the region, from Dryburgh and Melrose Abbey to Smailholm Tower, Kelso and Berwick upon Tweed.

Visitors will also be able to see three original Turner watercolours produced in association with Sir Walter Scott’s work and his posthumous biography.

Kirsty Archer-Thompson, collections and interpretation manager for the Abbotsford Trust and curator of the exhibition, told us: “I think that interactions between the famous figures of our past reminds us how dynamic that past was.

"In terms of collaboration and marketing coups, the partnership of Turner and Scott was revolutionary in the history of the book.

"But on a human level, their relationship was more interesting still, plagued by the suspicion, anxiety and miscommunication between two men desperate to make their mark and cement their legacy.

"This is a story about the vulnerabilities of artists as people, but also about how those people find a way forwards to reconciliation - and perhaps even friendship. I think that, for that reason, it’s still a very relevant story to the world of today."

The exhibition, which opened last month, will run until the end of the season on November 30.

Entry is included in the admission ticket to the house.