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 ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Rainbow above a Landscape c.1828-40

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Rainbow above a Landscape’ c.1828-40
A Rainbow above a Landscape c.1828–40
D25296
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 174
Watercolour on white wove paper, 306 x 488 mm
Watermark ‘C Ansell | 1828’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[... ?of N...]’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘174’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 174’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This elemental evocation of a rainbow over a bright landscape has been noted in passing by Eric Shanes as possibly related to a colour study (Tate D25272; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 150)1 for the Ports of England watercolour design Plymouth (Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon);2 as the rainbow in that subject rises to the right, and it is usually dated to about 1825 in relation to its being engraved in 1828 (Tate impression: T04835), the 1828 watermark of the present sheet seems to preclude a direct connection. Nevertheless, just as in D25272, the bright colours of the rainbow itself are evoked by a contrast of a simple undeveloped arc of warm ochre against the cool blues of the sky. Compare also the full rainbow in Tate D17182 (Turner Bequest CXCVI R), watermarked 1816.
1
See Shanes 1997, p.51.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.388 no.760, reproduced.
Technical notes:
The sheet is darkened and stained at the bottom right corner.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by John Ruskin in pencil ‘AB 150 P | O’ top left, upside down; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII | 174’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCLXIII – 174’ bottom right.
There is some heavy brown staining.

Matthew Imms
March 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Rainbow above a Landscape c.1828–40’, 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/a-rainbow-above-a-landscape-r1183156, accessed 11 December 2024.