Study of a Teal with Outspread Wings
- Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner
- Date: c.1820
- Medium: Watercolour on paper
- Dimensions: support: 316 x 470 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Study of a Teal with Outspread Wings” by Joseph Mallord William Turner. Painted around 1820, it’s a small watercolour on paper, just over 30 cm by 47 cm, so you could almost hold the bird in your hand. Turner, best known for his sweeping seascapes, spent a lot of time in the 1820s sketching wildlife, and this piece is a perfect example. The artist captures a teal mid‑flight, wings outstretched, feathers rendered in delicate layers of blue and gray. The watercolours bleed subtly into one another, giving the bird a sense of lightness and motion. Notice how Turner uses almost no outlines; the shape is suggested by the tone of the washes, a technique that would later inform his atmospheric landscapes. This sketch came from the Turner Bequest, collected in 1856, and it highlights Turner’s keen observational eye and his interest in natural history. It shows that before the dramatic skies he is famous for, Turner was already exploring how to capture the fleeting moment of a bird in flight.
See it in person
Study of a Teal with Outspread Wings is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
