Commissioned from Turner by William Beckford as one of a series of five views of Fonthill at different times of the day, exhibited at the R.A. in 1800. They showed the Abbey in the light of morning (341), noon (663), afternoon (328), sunset (680) and evening (566). The title is that by which the present drawing is now known; but since the north-east view was specified as 'Sunset' and this drawing (though considerably faded) seems to represent a scene of full daylight, it may be that it should be identified with one of the other views, perhaps either 663 (noon) or 328 (afternoon). Turner stayed with Beckford in 1799, making numerous pencil and watercolour studies of the house, both in detail and seen at a distance, in the park and surrounding countryside; they are mostly in the 'Fonthill' sketchbook, T.B.XLVII, of which f.11 is closest to this view. The Abbey was still in course of construction while Turner was there (see No.37); many of the sketches indicate scaffolding round the tower which is shown here as completed, perhaps with the aid of architect's drawings. The architect was James Wyatt, whose own view of the ‘building now erecting at Fonthill’ had been shown at the R.A. in 1799 (1016) as had Richard Westmacott’s ‘La Madonna della Gloria, a statue for Fonthill Abbey’ (1006).