J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Margate, London and Surrey c.1829-45 > Kent Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Study of Clouds; ?A Landscape or Composition c.1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Study of Clouds; ?A Landscape or Composition’ c.1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 31 Verso:
A Study of Clouds; ?A Landscape or Composition c.1830
D35813
Turner Bequest CCCLXIII 30a
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 76 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Pink & Blue’ towards top centre, and possibly towards bottom right, inverted (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, the outer half comprises a typical spontaneous study of clouds, the ‘Pink’ colour note suggesting a dawn or perhaps a sunset sky.
Towards the gutter is a slighter thumbnail sketch, suggesting a landscape or sky with vertical features, perhaps drawn the other way up, as there may be two illegible words inscribed within it, which possibly relate to the inscription on folio 32 recto opposite (D35814; Turner Bequest CCCLXIII 31).

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Study of Clouds; ?A Landscape or Composition c.1830 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.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-study-of-clouds-a-landscape-or-composition-r1183775, accessed 25 July 2025.