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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Ports of England c.1822-8 > Ports of England Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Seascape, with Land in Distance c.1822-3

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Seascape, with Land in Distance’ c.1822-3
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 8 Recto
Seascape, with Land in Distance c.1822–3
D17727
Turner Bequest CCII 8
Watercolour on white wove paper, 257 x 178 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘8’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCII–8’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner scholars have pointed out that sky studies such as this are similar to those in the Skies sketchbook of about 1816–8 (Tate D12450–D12526; Turner Bequest CLVIII 2–69).1 Here Turner has applied blue wash to the sheet in vigorous diagonal dry brush-strokes leaving the grain of the paper exposed to create a mottled effect. This preliminary setting out of colour has been blurred in opposing diagonal strokes of very dilute wash evoking the way in which beams of light pierce through cloud. A roughly wrought strip of wash suggests a headland. The sea beneath is rendered in shades of blue-grey and pale green at the periphery.
1
Butlin, Wilton, and Gage 1974, p.97, no.260.
Verso:
Blank

Alice Rylance-Watson
March 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Seascape, with Land in Distance c.1822–3 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-seascape-with-land-in-distance-r1148297, accessed 25 April 2024.