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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Spring Tour of Northern France 1845 > Ambleteuse and Wimereux Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dark Clouds over the Sea ?near Boulogne 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dark Clouds over the Sea ?near Boulogne’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Dark Clouds over the Sea ?near Boulogne 1845
D35400
Turner Bequest CCCLVII 13
Watercolour on white wove paper, 238 x 336 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘13’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLVII 13’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch, achieved without underlying pencil drawing, represents a yellow sea churning beneath dark cloud cover. Particular attention has been paid to the growing intensity of grey in the cloud on the horizon to the right.
Technical notes:
There is purple-grey staining to left of the page.
Verso:
Blank, except for an even margin of mottled brown discolouration at the extreme right of the page. There are also irregular blotches of brown and grey discolouration.

John Chu
December 2013

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Dark Clouds over the Sea ?near Boulogne 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-dark-clouds-over-the-sea-near-boulogne-r1173499, accessed 26 April 2024.