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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Windsor and Eton Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Female Field Hands c.1806-8

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Female Field Hands’ c.1806-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 27 Recto:
Female Field Hands circa 1806–8
D06098
Turner Bequest XCVII 27
Pencil on white wove paper, 107 x 182 mm
Variously inscribed by Turner in pencil with initial letters ‘G’, ‘W’. ‘B’ denoting colours
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘27’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XCVII 27’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the distant view of Windsor Castle on folio 2 of the sketchbook (D06073), various sketches of cattle for which see folios 21 and 22 (D06092, D06093) and folios 81 verso and 82 verso (D06161, D06163) also depicting field workers this drawing is associated by Butlin and Joll with Turner’s picture Ploughing up Turnips near Slough (Tate N00486)1 exhibited at Turner’s Gallery in 1809. As they observe, these figures are generally ‘similar but not identical’ to those in the picture. Turner’s addition of colour notes to this sketch and the following on folio 28 (D06099) suggests that he intended to put them to future use.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, p.66 no.89 (pl.99).
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
September 2008

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Female Field Hands c.1806–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2008, 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-female-field-hands-r1130279, accessed 26 April 2024.