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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Milan to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Storm Clouds and Lightning 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Storm Clouds and Lightning’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Recto:
Storm Clouds and Lightning 1819
D14326
Turner Bequest CLXXV 1
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 185 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘1’ top right and ‘300’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXV 1’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This quick study appears to show a zigzag of lightning to the left of billowing clouds and precipitation; the rough horizontal lines may indicate a distant plain. The jumbled drawings on folio 3 verso (D14330) also appear to include lightning, and the two pages perhaps record a storm in the Alps, recorded on Turner’s detour to the Simplon Pass as he travelled east across northern Italy; see Nicola Moorby’s introduction to the present tour.

Matthew Imms
March 2017

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Storm Clouds and Lightning 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-storm-clouds-and-lightning-r1186440, accessed 18 April 2024.