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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > Calais Pier Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study for a Historical Subject with Storm Clouds, Large Buildings and a Bridge c.1799-1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study for a Historical Subject with Storm Clouds, Large Buildings and a Bridge’ c.1799-1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
Study for a Historical Subject with Storm Clouds, Large Buildings and a Bridge c.1799–1805
D04906
Turner Bequest LXXXI 5
Blue and white chalks on blue laid paper, 271 x 436 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and Strasburg lily
Inscribed in ink ‘5’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–5’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the page turned horizontally, this is a perhaps an idea for one of the Biblical ‘Plagues of Egypt’ or, as Jerrold Ziff suggests,1 for the painting The Destruction of Sodom, possibly exhibited in 1805 (Tate N00474).2 Compare other studies on folios 15 recto, 56 verso–57 recto and 73 verso–74 recto (D04930, D05012–D05013, D05046–D05047; Turner Bequest LXXXI 29, 110–111, 144–145).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
See Ziff 1980, p.168.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.44 no.56, pl.66.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Study for a Historical Subject with Storm Clouds, Large Buildings and a Bridge c.1799–1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-study-for-a-historical-subject-with-storm-clouds-large-r1178110, accessed 18 April 2024.