J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Tour of Yorkshire 1816 > Yorkshire 1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Fountains Hall from the West 1816

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Fountains Hall from the West’ 1816
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 38 Recto:
Fountains Hall from the West 1816
D10938
Turner Bequest CXLIV 38
Pencil on white wove paper, 97 x 154 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘x fits with [?] P work’, ‘4’, ‘5’
Very faint trace of an inscription in red ink, possibly by John Ruskin, bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXLIV 38’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch records a view of Fountains Hall and Abbey from a little way west, beyond the bridge over the River Skell. Turner also made a more expansive study from a similar angle but further away in the Yorkshire 3 sketchbook (Tate D11384; Turner Bequest CXLVI 10), which also accompanied Turner on this tour in 1816. The present sketch seems to have been made to record close detail that might have been required for a finished composition developed from the more distant view. The numbers ‘4’ and ‘5’ refer to crenellations on the square towers and perhaps to stages on the gables, respectively.
Fountains Hall was built by Stephen Proctor between 1598 and 1604. It is a particularly fine example of a late Elizabethan mansion, and is now owned by the National Trust as part of the Fountains Abbey estate.

David Hill
January 2009

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Fountains Hall from the West 1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-fountains-hall-from-the-west-r1144126, accessed 24 April 2024.