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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Berwick Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Stormy Sky 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Stormy Sky’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 41 Verso:
Stormy Sky 1831
D25717
Turner Bequest CCLXV 41a
Pencil on white wove paper, 59 x 96 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In the foreground of this rough sketch of a stormy sky with dark clouds is a dark shape that looks like a flagpole, and a horizontal line at the bottom of the sketch suggests a wall or parapet. There are no topographical elements in the sketch to indicate its location, but it could perhaps be linked to a similar composition in the Abbotsford sketchbook (Tate D25984; Turner Bequest CCLXVII 34), which, it has been suggested, may be a view from the town wall of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Stormy Sky 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-stormy-sky-r1134081, accessed 10 May 2024.