Joseph Mallord William Turner

?A Sail against a Stormy Sky

c.1823–4

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Old London Bridge Sketchbook
Medium
Watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 98 × 162 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D17881
Turner Bequest CCV 26

Catalogue entry

With great economy, Turner has evoked what is probably a bright sail against a threatening sky by the simple but deft means of leaving the blank paper to represent the shape. Wet pigment has been lifted at the top left to evoke brighter clouds. This is one of a sequence of fourteen monochrome, tonal studies of landscapes and cloudy skies running from about the middle of the sketchbook onwards; for the others and further discussion, see the Introduction.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
December 2014

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