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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Eclipse Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Landscape; Sun Nearly Three-Quarters Eclipsed 1804

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Landscape; Sun Nearly Three-Quarters Eclipsed’ 1804
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Verso:
Landscape; Sun Nearly Three-Quarters Eclipsed 1804
D05250
Turner Bequest LXXXV 3a
Black and white chalk on white wove paper prepared with a slatey brown wash, 166 x 112 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXXV 3a’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject continues on folio 4 (D05251). In this double-spread, clumps of trees in the foreground have come into prominence as the light fades and their shade increases. On folios 5 verso and 6 (D05254–D05255) the sun is shown three-quarters eclipsed. As noted in the Introduction to the sketchbook, the fact that an eclipse of this extent was visible in London on 11 February 1804 provides the evidence for dating the sketches.

David Blayney Brown
November 2004

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Landscape; Sun Nearly Three-Quarters Eclipsed 1804 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2004, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-landscape-sun-nearly-three-quarters-eclipsed-r1201965, accessed 21 November 2024.