J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > East Sussex c.1806-20 > Herstmonceux and Pevensey Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Stormy Sky with Lightning c.1806-10

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Stormy Sky with Lightning’ c.1806-10
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Recto:
Stormy Sky with Lightning circa 1806–10
D05676
Turner Bequest XCI 59
Pencil and white chalk on cream wove paper, prepared with a buff wash, 128 x 201 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘59’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XCI 59’ bottom left, descending vertically
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram, bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
More stormy skies follow on folios 60 and 61 of the sketchbook (D05677, D05678).
The incidence of these near sketches of Hastings and Battle is suggestive as Turner was later to use storms and lightning-blasted trees as metaphors for battle and the death of King Harold from an arrow, in his watercolour Battle Abbey, the Spot where Harold Fell (currently untraced),1 engraved by William Bernard Cooke for Views in Sussex.
The leaf is stained.
1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.348 no.423.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
March 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Stormy Sky with Lightning c.1806–10 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-stormy-sky-with-lightning-r1130987, accessed 25 April 2024.