'A Standing Nude Woman, Seen from Behind', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

A Standing Nude Woman, Seen from Behind

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

D10418

Turner Bequest CXL 5

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 5 Recto:

A Standing Nude Woman, Seen from Behind circa 1816

D10418
Turner Bequest CXL 5

Pencil on white wove paper, 155 x 95 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘5’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CXL 5’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

This is one of several life studies in this sketchbook, probably made in the Royal Academy life classes; see also the verso and folios 6 and 7 (D10419–D10422) which have studies of the same figure and pose from other angles.

Turner was an Annual Visitor (instructor) in the Life Academy in various years. He served in 1813, the year that this sketchbook is watermarked, and again in 1822, 1823, 1825, 1830, 1831, 1834, 1835 and 1837. Figures in this sketchbook may have been drawn to inform The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire (Tate N00499) of 1817 1 given the presence of other sketches and verse (see Introduction).

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.