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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Midlands 1794-1802 > Marford Mill Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of Three Men on Rocks ?1795

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study of Three Men on Rocks’ ?1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 41 Verso:
Study of Three Men on Rocks ?1795
D00322
Turner Bequest XX 41a
Pencil on white laid paper, 152 x 99 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, is continued on folio 42 recto opposite (D00323). It seems to be connected with an idea for a Shipwreck or Deluge subject, perhaps suggested by the exhibition of Copley’s Defeat of the Floating Batteries in 1795; see introductory note. Turner finally produced important pictures of The Shipwreck and The Deluge in about 1805 (Tate N00476, N00493).1 Compare the drawings on folios 33 verso–34 recto and 36 verso (D00307, D00308, D00313).

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.43–4 nos.54, 55, pl.64 (colour), 65 (colour).

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Study of Three Men on Rocks ?1795 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-study-of-three-men-on-rocks-r1140715, accessed 25 April 2024.