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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > Cowes Regatta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Clouds over the Sea 1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Clouds over the Sea’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 39 Verso:
Clouds over the Sea 1827
D18065
Turner Bequest CCVII 39a
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 100 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Mackerel Sky’ top left, ‘Dark’ and ‘Blue’ towards top centre, ‘warm yelw’ centre left, ‘[?Puce warm]’ towards bottom right, and ‘[?sun all shadows]’ bottom centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Most of the page is dominated by scudding clouds against what Turner notes as a ‘mackerel sky’ (bands of high cloud); see also the note on folio 43 recto (D18072). There are written colour notes, and a low horizon, presumably that of the sea, with what seem to be masts and sails towards the left. For more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the sketchbook Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Clouds over the Sea 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, 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-clouds-over-the-sea-r1183553, accessed 19 April 2024.