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 Study of Clouds c.1818

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study of Clouds’ c.1818 (Inside back cover of sketchbook)
Inside back cover of sketchbook
Inside Back Cover:
Study of Clouds c.1818
D40582
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 247 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Yellow[?ish]’ towards bottom left and ‘Blue Shadows Red Crimson Light’ towards bottom right , and with calculations top right (see main catalogue entry)
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This paste-down is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. The sketch featured on it is typical of Turner’s quick, annotated pencil studies of clouds (his usual mode, as opposed to the extensive watercolour studies largely filling this book), catching the changes in light and colour with notes of the colours that he observed.
At the top right are scattered working calculations, typical of the endpapers of Turner’s sketchbooks:
3 . 12. 34
24
3 [...]
5[?0]
50 [...?and]
5
250
. . [?76]

Caitlin Doley
July 2024

How to cite

Caitlin Doley, ‘Study of Clouds 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/study-of-clouds-r1208952, accessed 13 June 2025.