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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Cloud Study 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Cloud Study’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 89 Verso:
A Cloud Study 1811
D08532
Turner Bequest CXXIII 86a
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘10’ left of centre, descending vertically, and ‘16 | 10 | 12 Bagshot | 8’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This cloud study is unusual for Turner in being carefully shaded. The majority of his pencil sketches are in line alone, but he apparently felt the need here to register the relative tones of the clouds and sky.
The main inscription relates to part of the route from London ‘to Exeter & the Lands End’ printed on the page of Coltman’s British Itinerary on folio 90 recto opposite (D08533; CXXIII 87), including Egham, Bagshot and Blackwater. Turner presumably passed through Bagshot on the early part of his West Country tour, as Egham and Blackwater, to its east and west, are noted near the beginning of this sketchbook (folio 1 recto; D08362). Bagshot is also mentioned in the long topographical poem which runs through much of the book, on folio 28 verso (D08414).

Matthew Imms
June 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Cloud Study 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-a-cloud-study-r1137009, accessed 23 September 2024.