Avon Gorge and Bristol Hotwell (drawing/watercolour)

a framed colour drawing on paper, showing: a view of the Avon Gorge and the hot well from the Somerset side of the River Avon; in the foreground, three sailors work to moor a ship (in a place where a ship could never have moored); another ship is seen sailing downriver in full sail; on the opposite bank, the early spa buildings are seen with, to the right, the colonnade - the curved building still in existence today; above, perched at the top of St Vincents Rock, is the old snuff mill that would eventually become the Observatory; this view was worked up from sketches the 16 year-old Turner made when he stayed in Bristol in 1791; at the time he stayed with friends of his father's in Bristol, the Narraway family, and spent much of his time in the Avon Gorge; a near identical watercolour to this, by Turner, is in the Courtauld Institute collection (object number D.2007.DS.42)