J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Royal Academy c.1789-99 > Drawings from the Nude Model > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Male Nude Stooping over a Rock, Seen from the Side c.1796

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Male Nude Stooping over a Rock, Seen from the Side’ c.1796
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Male Nude Stooping over a Rock, Seen from the Side c.1796
D00203
Turner Bequest XVIII H
Black and white chalks with stump on laid blue paper, 550 x 380 mm
Inscribed by Turner in red chalk ‘[?WT]’ lower right
Inscribed in red ink ‘XVIII.H’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XVIII H’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The pose may be intended to echo the typical attitude of Narcissus in paintings illustrating the story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The monogram inscribed with a finely sharpened red point is apparently similar to that in black chalk on Tate D00205 (Turner Bequest XVIII J).
The sheet is trimmed irregularly; two pieces are torn away at the right-hand edge. There is an offset of this drawing on Tate D00056 (Turner Bequest V C).
Verso:
Blank; the sheet is now laid down.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Male Nude Stooping over a Rock, Seen from the Side c.1796 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-male-nude-stooping-over-a-rock-seen-from-the-side-r1140221, accessed 23 April 2024.