Joseph Mallord William Turner

This composition comprises little more than near-monochrome washes evoking a horizon with a narrow band of bright sky above it, sandwiched between pale brown areas. The landscape is more purposefully worked in the foreground with heavier, sweeping washes giving a sense of recession to the paler distance. The conditions implied may be low cloud or mist, but this is one of the slightest and least developed of Turner’s ‘colour beginnings’.

Technical marks:

There are surface abrasions towards the top left and top right, exposing the white paper beneath. The marks at the bottom left may be test strokes of the brush.

Verso:

Blank; laid down on a similar sheet, trimmed closely all round.