Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775–1851, British
Title:
Stormy Sea Breaking on a Shore
Date:
between 1840 and 1845
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
17 1/2 x 25 inches (44.5 x 63.5 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.632
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
sky | landscape | seascape | sun | meteorology | science | texture | light | abstract art | movement | sea | shore (landform) | storms | waves (natural events)
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
In a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-03-24 - 2023-12-03)

Coming Away : Winslow Homer in England (Worcester Art Museum, 2017-11-11 - 2018-02-04)

Coming Away : Winslow Homer in England (Milwaukee Art Museum, 2018-03-02 - 2018-05-20)

Touchstone Turner (Turner Contemporary, 2014-01-25 - 2014-05-11)

Turner : The Late Seascapes (Clark Art Institute, 2003-06-14 - 2003-09-08)

Turner : The Late Seascapes (Manchester City Galleries, 2003-11-01 - 2004-01-25)

Turner : The Late Seascapes (Burrell Collection, 2004-02-15 - 2004-05-14)

Late Turner (Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, LLC, 1999-04-01 - 1999-06-05)

William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism (Indiana University Art Museum, 1988-01-27 - 1988-03-06)

William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism (Chicago Historical Society, 1988-04-06 - 1988-06-05)

William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism (New York Public Library, 1987-10-31 - 1988-01-02)

J. M. W. Turner - A Selection of Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (National Gallery of Art, 1968-10-31 - 1969-04-21)

Painting in England 1700-1850 - From The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20)
Publications:
Martin Butlin, The paintings of J.M.W. Turner, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, 1984, p. 284, 291, 293, no. 482, pl. 483, NJ18 T85 B885 1984 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 228-229, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)

Genius Defined, Time, vol. 82, no.. 1, July 5, 1963, p.62, V 2333 (YCBA) Hard Copy also available at SML - AP2 T55 +

Luke Herrmann, The Paul Mellon Collection at Burlington House, Connoisseur, vol. 157, December 1964, p. 218, N1 C75 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)

J.M.W. Turner : a selection of paintings from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, , National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1968, pp. 14, 30, no. 15, fig. 15, NJ18 T85 U5 (YCBA)

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 92, no. 136, pl. 192, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA)

Painting in England 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, The Royal Academy of Arts Winter Exhibition 1964-65., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 1964, p. 44 (v.1), no. 163, pl. 63, N5220.M45 R69 1964 (YCBA)

Tony Smibert, Turner's Apprentice : a watercolour class, Thames and Hudson, 2020, p. 117, NJ18.T85 S65 2020 Oversize (YCBA)

Denys Sutton, Some English Landscapes in Mr. Mellon's Collection, Apollo, vol. 77, April 1963, p. 281-282, Pl. VI, N1 A54 + (YCBA)

Andrew Wilton, The life and work of J.M.W. Turner, Academy Editions, London, 1979, p. 293, no. P482, NJ18 T85 +W577 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon : [exhibition at] Yale University Art Gallery, April 15-June 20, 1965, , vol. 1, W. Clowes and sons, New Haven, 1965, p. 51 (v.1), no. 192, pl. 63, ND466 Y35 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
In later life, J. M. W. Turner spent much of the year living incognito in Chelsea, London, with Sophia Booth, his mistress and housekeeper. Turner had met the widowed Mrs. Booth in Margate and adopted the pseudonym of Captain Booth to preserve his anonymity, passing himself off as a retired seaman. Though ailing physically, he traveled to Switzerland most summers until 1845 and spent a great deal of time in Margate studying the sea. After Turner’s death, a cache of studies of the sea like this one were found in his Chelsea studio. The exact status of these small oil studies is contested, but most of them are uncharacteristically devoid of human presence and are instead pure studies of the power of nature achieved with an almost monochrome palette. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1095