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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Spring Tour of Northern France 1845 > Ambleteuse and Wimereux Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rain Falling over the Sea ?near Boulogne 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Rain Falling over the Sea ?near Boulogne’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Rain Falling over the Sea ?near Boulogne 1845
D35398
Turner Bequest CCCLVII 11a
Watercolour on white wove paper, 238 x 336 mm
Inscribed in pencil ‘11’ top right
Stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCCLVII – 11’ towards top right, upside down (see Technical notes)
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As on the other side of this sheet (D35397; Turner Bequest CCCLVII 11), Turner develops the theme of rainclouds breaking over the sea. Distinctive here is the rich colouristic effect of indigo and crimson at the centre of the cloud and the overlapping, claw-like formation of brush-strokes to depict falling rain.
Technical notes:
The pencil inscription of ‘11’ and the upside down stamp of ‘CCCLVII – 11’ give the Turner Bequest number for D35397, on the other side of the present sketch, and inverted in relation to it.

John Chu
December 2013

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Rain Falling over the Sea ?near Boulogne 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 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-rain-falling-over-the-sea-near-boulogne-r1173497, accessed 19 April 2024.