Study of Fonthill Abbey Rising above Woods

This rough sketch is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. A large coloured version of this composition is Tate D04167 (Turner Bequest LXX P). The upright format was not adopted by Turner for any of the five finished watercolour views he made for William Beckford, though another coloured study with a similar composition is in the Fonthill sketchbook (Tate D02187; Turner Bequest XLVII 10). That indicates that the view is from the south-west, which may therefore be the orientation of this view too. All these studies were no doubt preparatory for the South-west view of a Gothic Abbey now building at Fonthill, the seat of W. Beckford Esq. (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto)1 that Turner exhibited in at the Royal Academy in 1800.