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 ... > Skies Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of Rain Clouds above a Beach c.1818

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study of Rain Clouds above a Beach’ c.1818
Folio 6 Recto:
Study of Rain Clouds above a Beach c.1818
D12454
Turner Bequest CLVIII 6
Watercolour on white wove paper, 125 x 247 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1814’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘6’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLVIII – 6’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page features a lively watercolour sketch of clouds billowing over what appears to be a sandy beach. Darker, heavier clouds gather above and the diagonal strokes to the far left of the composition suggest falling rain. It is difficult to tell if we are looking out to a tumultuous sea or back towards a flat landscape covered in low clouds.
See the sketchbook’s Introduction for general notes on possible locations and dating.
Technical notes:
Irregular staining is evident along the right-hand edges of the leaf, possibly sustained in the 1928 Tate Gallery flood. On the upper left, it appears that this watercolour stained the verso of folio 5 opposite (D12453). With regards to the Whatman watermark visible on this leaf, paper historian Peter Bower has observed:
Besides the normal watermarks, pages 5, 6, and 12 in this sketchbook also show ‘ghost’ marks, where the impression of a watermark has transferred to another piece of paper, either in pressing at the mill, during the making of the paper, or, more rarely, from the pressure exerted during the binding of the book.1
1
Bower 1990, p.101 note 1
Verso:
Blank

Caitlin Doley
July 2024

How to cite

Caitlin Doley, ‘Study of Rain Clouds above a Beach c.1818’, catalogue entry, July 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, October 2024, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/study-of-rain-clouds-above-a-beach-r1208878, accessed 22 November 2024.