Study of Clouds

c.1822–3

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Ports of England Sketchbook
Medium: Watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 257 x 178 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D17742
Turner Bequest CCII 23

Catalogue entry

Perhaps one of the most visual arresting watercolours in the sketchbook, Turner here evokes the mushrooming of cumuli in an expansive sky with sea below. The sheet has been saturated with wash, allowing the brush to leave an impression of its fibres in every stroke and daub. Turner may have also used his figures here as a means to apply and manipulate wash. Turner’s palette of grey and cerulean blue evokes the dim and sombre light of a storm at sea.

Verso:

Blank

Alice Rylance-Watson
March 2013

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