Joseph Mallord William Turner

Studies of the Sun among Clouds

1798

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Drawings Connected with the Kent and Welsh Tours of 1798, and Other Works
Medium: Watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 211 × 164 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D00717
Turner Bequest XXIX L

Catalogue entry

Finberg dated this sheet of grey and blue wash studies to about 1796 1 but, as artist and collector John Postle Heseltine (1843–1929) observed,2 it is probably rather later. It is grouped for convenience here with the series of drawings on card of about 1798, though the type of card used is slightly coarser. The use of blue corresponds with the blue trials and blots on other cards in this group. There are two, possibly three, separate studies here, and it is not easy to determine which way up the sheet should be viewed. This catalogue entry follows the suggestion of the stamping, with the rough edge of the card at the bottom, but the alternative, with the rough edge at the top, is just as likely.

Finberg 1909, I, p.59.

In a copy of ibid., Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, I, p.59.

Technical notes:

The lower edge is roughly torn.

Verso:

Blank

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

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