The Falls of the Clyde

This work was probably painted around 1840 - one of a group of late oils - but was not exhibited in Turner's lifetime. In it he freely reworked subjects he had first treated decades before. The falls, which are situated on the upper Clyde near Lanark, had become an attraction for tourists in the years before Turner first sketched there in 1801. Turner's abiding fascination with the effects of strong light, here playing on the spray of the cascading water, converts a picturesque scene into a profound expression of the elemental forces and primary colours of nature.