Joseph Mallord William Turner

Storm over Light-House: Port from the Sea, with Wharf

c.1841–2

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Medium: Graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 215 × 291 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D27545
Turner Bequest CCLXXX 28

Catalogue entry

This is one of thirteen loose sheets found grouped together, a number of which are believed to be ideas for compositions relating to the life of Napoleon; for more information see the Introduction to this section.

This unfinished study shows a lighthouse and wharf from the the sea, the sky grey and stormy. Jan Piggott has tentatively suggested that the port shown is Dutch, however this remains uncertain.1 It is also unclear whether the sheet represents a Napoleonic subject in line with some of the other studies catalogued within this section.

Piggott 1993, p.95.

Verso:

Blank, save for some pale brown water or watercolour marks on the upper part of the sheet, and inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXXX. 28’ lower right.

Elizabeth Jacklin
September 2018

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