Joseph Mallord William Turner

This is one of three colour studies on grey paper (Tate D32191, D32202, D32203; Turner Bequest CCCXVII 12, 17, 18) included in the present grouping of Venice Lagoon subjects. Only the last of these has previously been proposed in recent years as relating to Turner’s 1840 visit. The other two are included here tentatively by association in terms of the similarity of their grey paper supports (see the technical notes below) and their having originally been included in the ‘Venice: Miscellaneous. (b) Grey Paper’ section of Finberg’s 1909 Inventory, albeit the present work was among a handful (D32185–D32191; CCCXVII 6–12) on similar paper of which he noted ‘some – probably all ... are not Venetian subjects’, but likely ‘done at the same time’,1 while the other two were given generic titles. D32185–D32190 are included elsewhere in the present tour.

The subject here, with silhouetted figures perhaps with a beached boat or on a pontoon in the shallows in the foreground, is comparable in its sparse articulation of space with watercolours identified more positively as Lagoon views (see D32162, D36192; Turner Bequest CCCXVI 25, CCCLXIV 334). The central sunset was a common motif for Turner (see the ‘Colour Studies of the Sun, Skies and Clouds c.1815–45’ section of this catalogue), deriving ultimately from the seaport paintings of the French-born, Rome-based artist Claude Lorrain (1604/5–1682).2 Compare the sunset over water in D32203, another of the grey paper sheets in this subsection as mentioned above, as well as a view of Barnstaple Bridge in Devon from about 1814 (Tate D25443; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 320), showing his long-standing use of the striking compositional device.

Writing in 1857, John Ruskin considered this study ‘of consummate work’.3 Reflecting the later tendency to regard Turner as a precursor to the Impressionists, C.A. Swinburne included it among ‘numerous studies of waves as influenced by tides and storms’, which ‘explain how and why it was that he became a master of marine painting. There is no studio work in them; they are all reproductions of nature, and bear nature’s mark upon them’.4