'A Seated Woman', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

A Seated Woman

From Richmond Hill; Hastings to Margate Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CXL

Date c.1816

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 155 x 95 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D10554

Turner Bequest CXL 73

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Richmond Hill; Hastings to Margate Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 81 Recto:

A Seated Woman circa 1816

D10554
Turner Bequest CXL 73

Pencil on white wove paper, 155 x 95 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘73’ bottom left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CXL 73’ top left, inverted

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

This figure is probably a further variant of one on folio 72 recto of the sketchbook (D10536; Turner Bequest CXL 65), and thus related to a seated figure lower left of centre in the Decline of the Carthaginian Empire (Tate N00499)1 exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1817. As well as a possible composition study on the verso (D10555; Turner Bequest CXL 73a) there are various sketches and drafts of verse connected with the picture in this sketchbook; see notes to folio 4 (D10416).

The leaf is splashed with oil or varnish.

David Blayney Brown
July 2011

Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed. 1984, pp.100–1 no.135 (pl.137).

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.