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Tate Britain Millbank

This is one of Turner's first attempts to paint in oils. Millbank, now the site of Tate Britain, was then on the outskirts of the city. Anticipating Whistler's later focus on the Thames lit by nocturnal effects, Turner here looks downriver towards the roofs and chimneys of Lambeth.

Despite the picture's modest size, and the word 'study' in the title, this was the first work of Turner's to be hung in the Great Room at the Royal Academy's annual exhibition. After his death, commentators tended to dismiss it as a rude beginning, overly dependent on seventeenth-century Dutch prototypes.

JMW Turner Moonlight, a Study at Millbank exhibited 1797
Oil on wood. Tate. Bequeathed by the artist 1856

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