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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Fonthill Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Fonthill: Farm Buildings, with the Tower of the Abbey Visible behind a Hill to the Right 1799

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Fonthill: Farm Buildings, with the Tower of the Abbey Visible behind a Hill to the Right’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Fonthill: Farm Buildings, with the Tower of the Abbey Visible behind a Hill to the Right 1799
D02194
Turner Bequest XLVII 17
Black chalk on white wove paper, 337 x 470 mm
Stamped in black ‘XLVII 17’ bottom right
Made with the page turned horizontally, this is one of several drawings that illustrate the extent of Turner’s exploration of the estate at Fonthill. His finished views are all subjects taken at a distance from the house itself; here, and on D02186, D02202, D02224 (Turner Bequest XLVII 9, 25, 47) and elsewhere, he records buildings associated with Fonthill that were not destined to be part of his final designs. Although he usually presents the great central tower of the Abbey as complete, it is clear from this drawing and others in this book (see D02193; Turner Bequest XLVII 16) that it was still shrouded in scaffolding while he was there.
Technical notes:
There are touches of yellow colour along the right edge. For a proposed sequence for the leaves of the disbound Fonthill sketchbook, with this page as folio 11, see the Introduction.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Fonthill: Farm Buildings, with the Tower of the Abbey Visible behind a Hill to the Right 1799 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-fonthill-farm-buildings-with-the-tower-of-the-abbey-visible-r1174227, accessed 26 April 2024.