'A Standing Male Nude, holding a Staff and with Left Arm outstretched, in a Landscape Setting', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

A Standing Male Nude, holding a Staff and with Left Arm outstretched, in a Landscape Setting

From Drawings from the Nude Model

Date c.1794-5

MediumChalk on paper

Dimensionssupport: 467 x 298 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D00199

Turner Bequest XVIII D

On display at Tate Britain

Theme: Turner Collection

Room: Turner and the Body

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

A Standing Male Nude, holding a Staff and with Left Arm outstretched, in a Landscape Setting c.1794–5

D00199
Turner Bequest XVIII D

Black, white and red chalks with stump on laid buff-grey paper, 467 x 298 mm
Inscribed by Turner in black chalk ‘WT 13’ lower right centre
Inscribed in red ink ‘XVIII D’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XVIII.D’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

This is one of the most fully worked up studies of the present series of nude studies. The model has been posed as St John the Baptist preaching, with a cross woven on to the tip of his staff, and the appropriate wilderness setting has evidently brought out Turner’s instinct to relate the figure to its natural context. The monogram can be compared with those in Tate D00198 and D00200 (Turner Bequest XVIII C, E).

Verso:

Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

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.