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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study for a Classical Landscape: Similar to 'Mercury and Herse' 1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Recto:
Study for a Classical Landscape: Similar to ‘Mercury and Herse’ 1805
D05585
Turner Bequest XC 59
Pen and ink on off-white wove paper, prepared with a grey wash, 258 x 150 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘59’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XC 59’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
For Mercury and Herse (on the London art market in 2005)1 and related drawings in this sketchbook see folio 57 (D05581). Butlin and Joll express reservations about a connection with this drawing.
Finberg credits an inscription by Turner, citing other possible classical themes, to the ‘margin’ of this drawing but it is fact opposite it on folio 58 verso (D05584).
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.80–2 no.114 (pl.122); Sotheby’s sale, 5 July 2005, lot 40.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
August 2007

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Study for a Classical Landscape: Similar to ‘Mercury and Herse’ 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2007, 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-for-a-classical-landscape-similar-to-mercury-and-herse-r1129900, accessed 28 March 2024.