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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > England and Wales Colour Studies c.1825 ... > Studies for Published 'England and ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Clouds above St Michael's Mount c.1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Clouds above St Michael's Mount’ c.1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Clouds above St Michael’s Mount c.1836
D25195
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 73
Watercolour on white wove paper, 305 x 488 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘73’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram centre
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 73’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This colour study has been described by Eric Shanes as possible ‘a testing ground for the down-brushing effect’1 of the rainclouds depicted in the sky of the watercolour Mount St Michael, Cornwall of about 1836 (University of Liverpool),2 engraved in 1838 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T04612, T06129).3
The cloud forms correspond with those at the top centre and right of the watercolour, although there is no indication of any topographical setting in the lower half of the sheet, where the Mount appears towards the left and Marazion towards the right in the distance beyond a busy foreground beach scene in the finished design; a definite link with the present study is thus likely to remain elusive. The England and Wales watercolour was based on two adjacent drawings in the 1811 Ivy Bridge to Penzance sketchbook (Tate D08931, D08932; Turner Bequest CXXV 42a, 43), both of which are unusual in indicating specific weather conditions, showing rolling, heavy clouds, albeit in pencil outline only.
Other ‘colour beginnings’ apparently of St Michael’s Mount, possibly made as exploratory studies for an alternative England and Wales design, are Tate D25187 and D25514 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 65, 390).
See also the introductions to the present subsection of identified subjects and the overall England and Wales ‘colour beginnings’ grouping to which this work has been assigned.
1
Shanes 1997, p.27.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.403 no.880, reproduced.
3
Shanes 1997, pp.94, 96, 101, 104.
Verso:
Blank (laid down and not examined).

Matthew Imms
March 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Clouds above St Michael’s Mount c.1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-clouds-above-st-michaels-mount-r1144287, accessed 09 May 2024.