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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Colour Studies of the Sun, Skies and ... > Colour Studies of Clouds, Storms and a ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Storm Clouds at Dusk, ?above the Sea c.1820-40

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Storm Clouds at Dusk, ?above the Sea’ c.1820-40
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Storm Clouds at Dusk, ?above the Sea c.1820–40
D25358
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 236
Watercolour on white wove paper, 190 x 276 mm
Inscribed by ?Turner ‘[?L]’ bottom left, ascending vertically, and ‘[?A]’ bottom centre, descending vertically
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards top left
Inscribed in red ink ‘236’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 236’ top left, upside down
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study has previously been reproduced in exhibition catalogues with the predominantly dark half at the bottom, presumably going by the position of the red ink and Finberg numbers at the bottom right when the sheet is thus orientated. However, read the other way up it appears rather to show dark storm clouds over a relatively pale, rolling sea, with the pink washes around and behind the clouds evokes a sunset sky.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘56’ above left of centre, upside down; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII | 236’ top left, upside down; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCLXIII – 236’ top right, upside down.

Matthew Imms
March 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Storm Clouds at Dusk, ?above the Sea c.1820–40 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-storm-clouds-at-dusk-above-the-sea-r1183157, accessed 26 April 2024.