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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Thames, London and South of England 1821 ... > Old London Bridge Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Clouds, with ?Trees Reflected in Water c.1823-4

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Clouds, with ?Trees Reflected in Water’ c.1823-4
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Recto:
Clouds, with ?Trees Reflected in Water c.1823–4
D17886
Turner Bequest CCV 30
Watercolour on white wove paper, 98 x 162 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘30’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCV – 30’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In this dramatic yet minimal landscape, the apparent reflections of the dark vertical features (presumably trees) dragged down the bare paper on the right are enough to evoke a wide river, a lake or perhaps a flooded lowland landscape in the foreground, beneath scudding dark clouds. This is one of a sequence of fourteen monochrome, tonal studies of landscapes and cloudy skies running from about the middle of the sketchbook onwards; for the others and further discussion, see the Introduction.
This study has been used as an example of ‘Using clouds as composition’1 by the artist Tony Smibert, who loosely paraphrased elements of the compositions in practical demonstration pieces.2

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
Smibert 2010, p.58.
2
See ibid., p.59, pls.1–4.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Clouds, with ?Trees Reflected in Water c.1823–4 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, 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-clouds-with-trees-reflected-in-water-r1172599, accessed 24 April 2024.