Joseph Mallord William Turner

?The Sun Rising through Cloud or Mist

c.1820–40

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Colour Studies of the Sun and Clouds at Dawn and Sunset
Medium: Watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 306 × 489 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D25200
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 78

Catalogue entry

With its reserved patch of blank white paper within a hazy yellow mass of cloud or mist against a blue sky, this appears to be an evocation of a dawn effect. For other ‘colour beginnings’ focusing on a centrally placed sun, see the Introduction to this subsection.

Technical notes:

Irregular staining is evident at the top right, possibly sustained in the 1928 Tate Gallery flood.

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in pencil by John Ruskin ‘AB 150 P | O’ bottom right; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII. 78’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCLXIII – 78’ bottom left.

There is some staining, perhaps offset from the edge of another sheet.

Matthew Imms
March 2016

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