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

This striking sketch shows a thunderstorm above a turbulent sea. The composition appears to have been created using only shades of grey watercolour paint. Turner has used thick diagonal brushstrokes to suggest heavy sheets of falling rain. What appears to be a lightning bolt cuts across the centre of composition the other way; this dramatic effect was perhaps created by Turner scratching out dry paint with the end of his paintbrush. In the lower section of the composition, it is difficult to discern exactly where the heavy sheets of rain end and the roiling waves begin.

The sketch is comparable in subject matter and appearance to the rectos of folios 23, 24, 28 and 31 (D12471, D12472, D12476, D12479).

See the sketchbook’s Introduction for general notes on possible locations and dating.

Technical notes:

There is some staining visible in the upper right-hand corner of the leaf, possibly sustained during the 1928 Tate Gallery flood.

Verso:

Blank, save for stain marks in the upper left-hand corner, corresponding with that on the recto.