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: The Abbey Seen between Trees 1799

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Fonthill: The Abbey Seen between Trees’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Fonthill: The Abbey Seen between Trees 1799
D02228
Turner Bequest XLVII 51
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 330 x 468 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed in brown ink ‘97’ (or ‘67’) bottom left
Stamped in black ‘XLVII 51’ bottom right
The wagon or wagons drawn by horses at the extreme left are carrying building materials to the building site at William Beckford’s Fonthill Abbey.
Technical notes:
The extreme fading caused by over-exposure to light is explained by the presence of this sheet among those shown regularly in the Second Loan Collection. The original strength of colour can be seen especially clearly along the right-hand edge. The outline of Fonthill Abbey itself is firmly drawn in pencil, and was probably never coloured.
For a proposed sequence for the leaves of the disbound Fonthill sketchbook, with this page as folio 16, see the Introduction.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Fonthill: The Abbey Seen between Trees 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-the-abbey-seen-between-trees-r1174232, accessed 25 April 2024.