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 ... > Drawings Connected with the Kent and ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of the Sun among Clouds 1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of the Sun among Clouds’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Studies of the Sun among Clouds 1798
D00717
Turner Bequest XXIX L
Watercolour on white card, 211 x 164 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram centre right
Stamped in black ‘XXIX L’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg dated this sheet of grey and blue wash studies to about 17961 but, as artist and collector John Postle Heseltine (1843–1929) observed,2 it is probably rather later. It is grouped for convenience here with the series of drawings on card of about 1798, though the type of card used is slightly coarser. The use of blue corresponds with the blue trials and blots on other cards in this group. There are two, possibly three, separate studies here, and it is not easy to determine which way up the sheet should be viewed. This catalogue entry follows the suggestion of the stamping, with the rough edge of the card at the bottom, but the alternative, with the rough edge at the top, is just as likely.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.59.
2
In a copy of ibid., Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, I, p.59.
Technical notes:
The lower edge is roughly torn.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Studies of the Sun among Clouds 1798 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-studies-of-the-sun-among-clouds-r1174990, accessed 20 April 2024.