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 Storm Clouds, Perhaps above a Beach c.1840-5

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Storm Clouds, Perhaps above a Beach’ c.1840-5
Storm Clouds, Perhaps above a Beach c.1840–5
D35874
Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 35
Watercolour on white wove paper 243 x 308 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram right of centre
Inscribed in red ink ‘35’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXIV – 35’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
While less obviously coastal in their setting compared to some of the similar cloudscapes addressed in John Chu’s section of ‘Coastal Scenes and Shipping’ after 1827 elsewhere in this catalogue, this and the compositionally similar Tate D35875 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 36) may be beach scenes, with streaks of red here suggesting the approach of sunset.
Examples of such scenes, with strong horizons about half-way up the sheet and dated by common consent to the early 1840s, have been discussed by Amy Concannon, associating them with Turner’s customary stays overlooking the broad sweep of the sea at Margate in Kent; they include Tate D35397, D36302, D36309 and D36310 (Turner Bequest CCCLVII 11, CCCLXV 12, 19, 20).1 While most of the works in this subsection have been dated to between 1820 and 1840 (see the Introduction), this and D35875 are dated subsequently by association with other works as discussed.
1
See Amy Concannon, ‘Horizons: Sea and Sky’ in David Blayney Brown, Concannon and Sam Smiles (eds.), Late Turner: Painting Set Free, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2014, pp.204–5.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCCLXIV – 35’ bottom right.
There are a few dark spots, possibly offset from another sheet.

Matthew Imms
March 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Storm Clouds, Perhaps above a Beach c.1840–5’, 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/storm-clouds-perhaps-above-a-beach-r1183163, accessed 21 November 2024.