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 5 Recto:
Study of Rain Clouds above a Beach c.1818
D12453
Turner Bequest CLVIII 5
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 ‘5’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLVIII – 5’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page features a study of rain clouds gathered above a sandy beach. The jagged grey strokes on the far left of the composition presumably indicate falling rain. As is the case with folio 4 recto (D12452), the comparably solid arcs of grey paint featured across the lower left of this composition could perhaps be waves crashing against the shore. In the upper right-hand corner there are some faint washes of pink that perhaps suggest the sun breaking through the rain clouds in the foreground. Banks of soft white clouds and areas of blue sky are visible on the horizon.
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 page, possibly sustained in the 1928 Tate Gallery flood. 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. Occasionally one finds in books the ghostmark of one maker transferred from a sheet of his paper to the surface of another watermarked sheet from a different maker used in the same 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-r1208877, accessed 21 November 2024.