Joseph Mallord William Turner

While this view has never been identified, it has previously been associated with the Welsh subjects of 1799-1800. Its dark woodland foreground and airy sense of distance, however, perhaps relate it more readily to Turner's work for Beckford. The study seems particularly close to a drawing made at Fonthill (exhibited adjacently) and it may even be an intermediate colour sketch for the finished watercolour derived from this (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts). Both the Beckford commission and the Welsh tour inspired sublime qualities in Turner's work. This naturally engendered some degree of thematic and technical crossover in the two resulting groups of works, which were executed almost simultaneously.

Gallery label, September 2004

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