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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Cheshire, Derbyshire, North Wales ... > Tabley No.3 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Clouds: Comments on Reflections in Moving Water and Other Notes (Inscriptions by Turner) c.1808-10

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Clouds: Comments on Reflections in Moving Water and Other Notes (Inscriptions by Turner)’ c.1808-10
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 92 Verso:
Clouds: Comments on Reflections in Moving Water and Other Notes (Inscriptions by Turner) circa 1808–10
D07114
Pencil on white wove paper, 108 x 185 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink and pencil (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s inscriptions read:
[In ink] If the undulating surface of liquids did not [by inserted] currants, air and motion | congregate [?complicate] forms, it would be no difficulty to simplify all rules or | attempts at such in to a small space by considering it and treating | reflections as reflections upon polished bodies – when frequently reflections | appear so true but [are] most fallacious to the great book of nature – | when panting art toils after truth in vain
[In pencil] No1 Raffaello G A M W R J W Oil first coat 
No 2 Shipping          Ditto W L M T W O ... 
No 3 Gaspar            G A W M JR Si SS W O T washed with J H O 
No 4 ...                 WhSi W J O TL O M 
No 5 ...                 Wh Si WP       WW            e 
W Si 
Turner’s remarks on broken reflections in moving or uneven water seem to follow on from those written inside the back cover of the sketchbook (D40630). He notes the difficulty of finding technical and pictorial methods to record what is seen by the eye. Turner’s last phrase has usually been read as ‘painting art’, which sounds clumsy, but his word is clearly ‘panting’ which vividly expresses his sense of frustration. These observations arise from his preparations for his lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, delivered from 1811. Lecture 5 would be devoted to ‘Reflexes’ or reflections.
The other notations in pencil are presumably analyses of the pigment or colouring of pictures, including works by Old Masters, Raphael and Gaspard Poussin.
Also present are endorsements by the Executors of the Turner Bequest in ink, ‘No.327. Contains 64 Leaves | Pencil Sketches’, signed by Charles Turner in ink ‘C. Turner’ and by Charles Eastlake and John Prescott Knight in pencil ‘C.L.E.’ and ‘JPK’.
There is also a slight sketch of clouds and sky.

David Blayney Brown
June 2010

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Clouds: Comments on Reflections in Moving Water and Other Notes (Inscriptions by Turner) c.1808–10 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2010, 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-clouds-comments-on-reflections-in-moving-water-and-other-r1134649, accessed 25 April 2024.