Joseph Mallord William Turner

The upper half of this barely developed composition shows heavy cloud, apparently with strokes at the top centre indicating rain; the lower half is effectively blank, although it may fortuitously serve to evoke the sky reflected in water.

Technical notes:

There is brown staining at the lower right. Finberg noted that this sheet, Tate D25255, D25259 and D25260 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 133, 137 and 138), respectively a landscape and two sky studies (addressed elsewhere in the present section), are all of the same dimensions and may have been leaves of a sketchbook.1 In the light of this, Eric Shanes has noted that D25260 bears an 1811 watermark, and has discussed various possibilities regarding the dating of D25259 from the late 1810s on.2 A generic date of c.1820–40, as noted in the Introduction to this subsection, has nevertheless been retained for the present work.

Verso:

Blank; laid down.