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 Clear or Hazy Skies > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Cloudy Sky over a Landscape with Water c.1820-40

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Cloudy Sky over a Landscape with Water’ c.1820-40
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Cloudy Sky over a Landscape with Water c. 1820–40
D40146
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 277v
Watercolour on white wove paper, 168 x 244 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sheet’s Turner Bequest number is stamped on the recto (D25400; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 277) and the associated monogram on this side respectively as now mounted, but it is difficult conclusively to differentiate Finberg’s titles for the two, respectively ‘River, with mountains’ and ‘A stretch of sands’.1
The recto is less developed, suggesting a grey, overcast sky above a yellowish landscape, while this side comprises more varied forms with a cleared distinction between landscape and sky. There is a vague sense of water in the foreground with architectural elements possibly including a pier or waterfront and a tower below a line of hills.

Matthew Imms
March 2016

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.835

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Cloudy Sky over a Landscape with Water c. 1820–40 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-a-cloudy-sky-over-a-landscape-with-water-r1183196, accessed 23 April 2024.