Evidently a design related to Turner's large ‘Landscape - A Composition of Tivoli' No. 181, though here the Temple of the Sibyl on the right has not yet made its appearance. Traces of a pencilled tree at that point in the composition suggest that Turner was searching for some taller form to balance the group of dark trees opposite. The reversal of the distant view in the final design also serves to broaden and smooth out the rhythms of the composition. All these points seem to show that the drawing must have been executed immediately before Turner tackled the final watercolour. Dark greens and ochres are characteristic of a number of 'colour-beginnings' which, on the evidence of this one, may be dated to about the same period. Turner apparently was in the habit of planning his large-scale water colours with full-size studies like this from a comparatively early stage in his development: compare the 'Norham' colour-beginning (No.639). There is also a full-scale preparatory study in colour for the large 'Scarborough' of c.1810 (No.113).