Beech Trees at Cassiobury Park, Hertfordshire

Turner produced four finished watercolours of Cassiobury Park circa 1809, presumably on commission, which were engraved by J. Hill for History and Description of Cassiobury Park, 1816. The view of The Deer House, Cassiobury Park was sold Christie's, London, 8 July 1997, lot 44 (£84,000). The project may have dated from several years earlier; in 1795 Turner was commissioned by the Earl, then Viscount Malden to do five drawings of his house Hampton Court, Herefordshire and there are a number of drawings of the Fonthill sketchbook, begun 1799. There are also two earlier works listed in A. Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg, 1979, p. 320, no. 187, Cottages in the Park, Cassiobury (Private Collection) and no. 188, Cassiobury Park, the Deer House (Huntington Library, San Marino).

The present drawing dates from the same period as the trees Turner drew in Norbury Park, Leatherhead, circa 1796, see A. Wilton, op.cit, nos. 155-7.