Joseph Mallord William Turner

Fountains Abbey and Hall

1816

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

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Not on display

Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Yorkshire 3 Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 125 x 200 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D11384
Turner Bequest CXLVI 10

Catalogue entry

Fountains Hall and Abbey are seen from the west-south-west, with the River Skell below. The Yorkshire 1 sketchbook has a detailed study of Fountains Hall from the same angle, but a closer viewpoint (Tate D10937–D10938; Turner Bequest CXLIV 37a–38), probably made to record close detail likely to be required for a finished composition developed from the present sketch. However, from Turner’s comment here that the ‘Distance [is] too much’, it would appear that he came to the conclusion that the viewpoint was too far away to serve his requirements.
The page is darkened from over-exposure.

David Hill
January 2009

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