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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Liber Studiorum notes c.1807-19 > Liber Notes (1) Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Cloudy Sky above a Wooded Landscape, Perhaps in the Thames Valley c.1815-16

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Cloudy Sky above a Wooded Landscape, Perhaps in the Thames Valley’ c.1815-16
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Recto:
A Cloudy Sky above a Wooded Landscape, Perhaps in the Thames Valley c.1815–16
D10779
Turner Bequest CXLIII 4
Pencil on white wove paper, 102 x 160 mm
Partial watermark ‘J Gr | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘warm Grey’ and ‘Br’ top left, ‘Cold Grey’ top right, ‘yellow’ and ‘Sky’ centre left, and ‘Grey’ towards bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘4’ bottom left, descending vertically (now smudged and faint)
Stamped in black ‘CXLIII – 4’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subjects from folio 3 recto (D10778) to folio 6 recto (D10781) await positive identification, but the views of Southwark Bridge preceding them (see under folio 1 recto; D10775) and the subsequent sketch of Greenwich on folio 7 recto (D10783) suggest that they are all likely to be River Thames scenes around London. Here, with the page turned horizontally, there are no landmarks in the rural setting, possibly the Thames Valley west of London, apart from the structure apparently indicated on the left. Turner has inscribed various colour notes in the sky, with strokes at top centre presumably indicating sunbeams radiating up from the left, perhaps around dawn or sunset. There are similar notes on folio 6 recto (D10781).
On the basis of ‘the style of the drawings’, Gerald Wilkinson suggested a slightly later dating of 1818 for this and the other examples he reproduced from this sketchbook (folios 5 recto, and 6 recto and verso; D10780–D10782), and thus for the book as a whole: ‘They have a quality hard to define: perhaps of light. They introduce the final phase of Turner’s dialogue with his River.’1 However, Finberg’s dating of c.1815–16 has been retained in the present catalogue, as set out in the sketchbook’s introduction.
1
Wilkinson 1974, p.170.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
September 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Cloudy Sky above a Wooded Landscape, Perhaps in the Thames Valley c.1815–16 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-cloudy-sky-above-a-wooded-landscape-perhaps-in-the-thames-r1147665, accessed 19 April 2024.