While Constable is well known for his studies of clouds made during the 1820s, many pages in Turner's notebooks record this kind of subject as an ever-present concern of his work. Ruskin wrote that the scientific delineation of 'the aspects of sunset and sunrise, with all their attendant phenomena of cloud and mist' was a central obsession in contemporary art. It is easy to see in these studies how Turner was able to recreate the effects of clouded skies in the finished for projects such as the 'Rivers of England' and the ' Views in England and Wales'.
Gallery label, August 2004
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