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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Colour Studies of the Sun, Skies and ... > Colour Studies of Clouds, Storms and a ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Clouds above a Landscape c.1828-40

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Clouds above a Landscape’ c.1828-40
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Clouds above a Landscape c.1828–40
D25415
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 292
Watercolour on white wove paper, 160 x 244 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘292’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 292’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With cool and warm bands of wash worked over and into each other in this loose study, it is difficult to establish where the sky ends and what seems to be a combination of land and water begins. The pale ochre strokes on the left may indicate towers or sails on the horizon, giving a sense of the magnitude of the looming clouds worked wet in wet above.
Technical notes:
Eric Shanes notes that this work was originally part of the same sheet as Tate D25414 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 291), a colour study of shipping watermarked 1828.1
1
See Shanes 1997, pp.94, 101.
Verso:
Blank; laid down.

Matthew Imms
March 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Clouds above a Landscape c.1828–40 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-clouds-above-a-landscape-r1183159, accessed 25 April 2024.