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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Scenes on River and Cloud Studies at ?Ghent or Bruges 1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 173 Verso:
Scenes on River and Cloud Studies at ?Ghent or Bruges 1824
D19886
Turner Bequest CCXVI 167 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 118 x 78 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Blue’ | ‘Yellow | Light’ top right; ‘[?Sun red | on Blue Light in Yellow Light’ centre towards top right; ‘[...] V[...] | [?going] [...] | [...]’ | ‘golden light’ far right centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner uses half of the page to record cursory studies of clouds, making note of the colours and tones of light: ‘golden light’, for example, or ‘sun red on blue light’. Below these sky studies is a small and picturesque riverside view, probably taken at or near either Ghent or Bruges. Tall swaying willows can be seen in the middle distance, rendered in loose scalloped line. They stand next to a building with a traditional crow-stepped gable and a windmill: signs that Turner is most likely in Flanders. In the foreground there are two small dinghies, moored to the banks.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2014

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Scenes on River and Cloud Studies at ?Ghent or Bruges 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-scenes-on-river-and-cloud-studies-at-ghent-or-bruges-r1174681, accessed 20 September 2024.