Joseph Mallord William Turner

?A Sunset

c.1823–4

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
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
D17874
Turner Bequest CCV 21

Catalogue entry

Finberg described the subject as a ‘Sunset’, though given the monochrome treatment and the quietness of the effect, with a rough white disk reserved to indicate an orb behind clouds, it might equally represent dawn or the moon; compare folios 22 recto and 23 recto (D17876, D17878). This is the first of a sequence of fourteen 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.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

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