Joseph Mallord William Turner A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk or Tower above a Classical Portico c.1823-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk or Tower above a Classical Portico
c.1823-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk or Tower above a Classical Portico c.1823–6
D25374
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 252
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 252
Watercolour on white wove paper, 224 x 304 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘252’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 252’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘252’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 252’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1934
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest [Loan Series A], Municipal Museum, Burton-on-Trent, September–December 1934, Public Museum, Wardown Park, Luton, January–February 1935, Manx Museum, Douglas, Isle of Man, August–November 1936, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, January–March 1937, Historical Rooms, Todmorden, January–March 1938, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, September 1946–February 1947, Cannon Hall, Cawthorne, December 1959–April 1960, possibly transferred to Wakefield Art Gallery, February–April (no catalogue but frame no.16, as ‘Study of Stormy Sky and Classic building’).
1935
Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, December 1935–April 1936 (43, as ‘Study of Stormy Sky with Classical Building’, c.1820–30).
1953
J.M.W. Turner R.A. 1775–1851: Pictures from Public and Private Collections in Great Britain, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, February–March 1953 (159, as ‘Study of Stormy Sky with Classical Building’, c.1820–30).
1963
Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, September–October 1963, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, November, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1963–January 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January–March, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, March–April, Brooklyn Museum, New York, May, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June–July (41, as ‘Landscape with a Porticoed Church (?) under a Stormy Sky’, c.1820–30).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (247, as ‘A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk and Classical Portico’, c.1825).
1977
Turner Watercolors: An Exhibition of Works Loaned by The Trustees of the British Museum, International Exhibitions Foundation tour, Cleveland Museum of Art, September–November 1977, Detroit Institute of Arts, December 1977–February 1978, Philadelphia Museum of Art, March–April (20, as ‘A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk and a Classical Portico’, c.1825).
1983
J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (162, as ‘Paysage d’orage avec un obélisque et un portique classique’, c.1825–6).
1995
Sketching the Sky: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, September 1995–February 1996 (no number, as ‘A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk and a Classical Portico’c.1825).
2010
Watercolour in Britain, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, January–April 2010, Museums Sheffield: Millennium Galleries, June–September 2010, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, September–December 2010 (not in catalogue; not exhibited at Newcastle).
2015
Gevaar & Schoonheid: Turner en de traditie van het sublieme, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle / Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede, September 2015–January 2016 (no number, as ‘A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk and a Classical Portico’c.1825, reproduced in colour).
References
1820
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.833, CCLXIII 252, as ‘The obelisk’, c.1820–30.
1820
D. Kighley Baxandall, Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff 1935, p.18 no.43, as ‘Study of Stormy Sky with Classical Building’, c.1820–30.
1820
Bryan Robertson and Sir John Rothenstein, J.M.W. Turner R.A. 1775–1851: An Exhibition of Pictures from Public and Private Collections in Great Britain, exhibition catalogue, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 1953, p.26 no.159, as ‘Study of Stormy Sky with Classical Building’, c.1820–30.
1820
Edward Croft-Murray, Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1963, p. 19 no.41, as ‘Landscape with a Porticoed Church (?) under a Stormy Sky’, c.1820–30.
1825
Andrew Wilton in Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.95 no.247, as ‘A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk and Classical Portico’, c.1825.
1975
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner’s Colour Sketches 1820–34, London 1975, p.118, as ‘Obelisk’, reproduced in colour.
1825
Andrew Wilton, Turner Watercolors: An Exhibition of Works Loaned by The Trustees of the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Cleveland Museum of Art 1977, p.39 no.20, as ‘A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk and a Classical Portico’, c.1825.
1825
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.390 no.776, as ‘Bridge and Monument’, c.1825, reproduced.
1989
Marcel-Etienne Dupret, ‘Turner’s “Little Liber”’, Turner Studies, vol.9, no.1, Summer 1989, p.42 under no.9.
1825
Andrew Wilton in John Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, pp.230, 232 no.162, as ‘Paysage d’orage avec un obélisque et un portique classique’, c.1825–6 reproduced.
1825
Sketching the Sky: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, p.[4] no number, as ‘A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk and a Classical Portico’c.1825.
1997
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.94 Appendix I ‘Churches’.
Finberg suggested that this subject, then simply called ‘The obelisk’, might be a ‘design for so-called “Little Liber.”’1 The present title takes account of the numerous permutations of the titles under which it has since been exhibited and published. Gerald Wilkinson has observed: ‘The tower is obviously attached to a classical portico and, though disproportionately large, cannot properly be called an obelisk. The general layout agrees with looking north to St John’s Wood Church, the open space of Regent’s Park on the right – not that it matters, of course.’2 This suggestion is ingenious, though any similarity is likely fortuitous; likewise Eric Shanes has made a passing comparison with a view of St John the Baptist’s Church, Buxton, in the Worcester and Shrewsbury sketchbook (Tate D22254; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 56a), but as this was used in 1830 a link must be disregarded.
Andrew Wilton has noted that there ‘seems to be no possible identification for this strange landscape’ which may include the ‘ruins of a classical temple’,3 and has compared it with the atmosphere of the stormy ‘Little Liber’ mezzotint engravings Catania, Sicily4 and Paestum;5 see the watercolour study for the latter (Tate D36070; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 224). He has also associated the present composition with the ‘Little Liber’ Bridge and Monument, for which the direct watercolour source is Tate D17193 (Turner Bequest CXCVII C), even giving it the same title at one stage.6
Wilton has compared the ‘thick, rich application ... and the palette of inky blues’ with that in ‘Little Liber’-type works such as a study related to Shields Lighthouse (Tate D25314; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 192).7 The ghostly form of the building(s) has been lifted out of the dark surrounding washes, and it and the clouds to the right show a pattern of palm prints imparting a velvety effect something like the dense cross-hatched tones of mezzotint. The same improvised technique is apparent in Tate D25315 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 193) in this subsection.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by ?John Ruskin in pencil ‘AB [?144] P | O’ bottom right; inscribed in pencil ‘39’ right of centre, ascending vertically; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII 252’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCLXIII – 252’ bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘D25374’ towards bottom right.
Matthew Imms
September 2016
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘A Stormy Landscape with an Obelisk or Tower above a Classical Portico c.1823–6 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2016, https://www