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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Colour Studies of the Sun, Skies and ... > Skies Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Red Sky and Crescent Moon c.1818

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Red Sky and Crescent Moon’ c.1818
Folio 54 Recto:
Red Sky and Crescent Moon c.1818
D12502
Turner Bequest CLVIII 54
Watercolour and gouache on white wove paper, 125 x 247 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1814’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘54’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLVIII – 54’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch shows the moon in what appears to be the waxing crescent phase rising over a body of water that might be the sea. Around the curve of the moon Turner has used washes of red, orange, and grey to evoke a striking evening skyscape. The vibrant but simultaneously subdued colours of the composition may reflect the unusual atmospheric conditions that followed the explosion of Mount Tabora in 1815. David Blayney Brown has remarked that:
the sustained concentration on the sky demonstrated in this sketchbook is exceptional, surely reflecting extraordinary weather conditions at the time. On 10 April 1815, Mount Tambora at Sumbawa in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) erupted in the most spectacular and devasting volcanic explosion in recorded history, throwing a plume of dust and gas into the atmosphere. For almost three years, skies around the world went dark or developed a baleful, infernal glow as the sun or moon struggled to break through. Crops failed; famine, cholera and typhus ran rampant, killing millions; riots and insurrection broke out in many countries, threatening anarchy, terrifying governments and creating an apocalyptic, millenarian mood to match the prevailing gloom.1
There are visual similarities to folios 42 and 45 (D12490, D12493), and also to some of the works featured in Matthew Imms’s parallel ‘Colour Studies of the Sun and Clouds at Dawn and Sunset c.1815–40’ subsection of the catalogue.
See the sketchbook’s Introduction for general notes on possible locations and dating.
1
Brown 2016, p.6
Verso:
Blank, save for blue marks across the top of the page, likely offset from folio 55 recto opposite (D12503).

Caitlin Doley
July 2024

How to cite

Caitlin Doley, ‘Red Sky and Crescent Moon c.1818’, catalogue entry, July 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, October 2024, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/red-sky-and-crescent-moon-r1208926, accessed 06 June 2025.