'Study of a Dragon: For 'The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides'', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Study of a Dragon: For 'The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides'

From Hesperides (1) Sketchbook

Turner Bequest XCIII

Date 1805

MediumPen and ink on paper

Dimensionssupport: 171 x 262 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D05771

Turner Bequest XCIII 3 a

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Hesperides (1) Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 3 Verso:

Study of a Dragon: For ‘The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides’ 1805

D05771
Turner Bequest XCIII 3a

Pen and ink on white wove paper prepared with a grey wash, 171 x 262 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘The Garden of the Hesperides’ lower centre

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

See note to folio 1 verso of the sketchbook (D05767) for its various sketches and studies related to The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides exhibited at the British Institution in 1806 (Tate N00477).1 Here Turner has drawn the dragon (Ladon, brother of the dragon slain by Jason when capturing the Golden Fleece) crouching on a mountain ridge as it does in the picture; Wilkinson describes it as ‘a particularly hideous serpent, containing all the features of current palaeontology’. This motif may also appear on folios 8 verso and 9 (D05780, D05781).

David Blayney Brown
October 2007

Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.44–6 no.57 (pl.67).

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.