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 > River and Margate Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Three Sketches of a Woman: Study for 'The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son's Prodigality' c.1807-8

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Sketches of a Woman: Study for 'The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son's Prodigality'’ c.1807-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 77 Verso:
Three Sketches of a Woman: Study for ‘The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son’s Prodigality’ circa 1807–8
D06487
Turner Bequest XCIX 73a
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 115 x 190 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted. For Turner’s picture, The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son’s Prodigality (collection of the Schindler Family),1 and related drawings in this sketchbook, see comment to folio 77 recto (D06486; Turner Bequest XCIX 73). Although not hitherto identified as such, these sketches are also related, showing three alternative ideas for the dentist’s wife. At left, she is shown standing and turned away to the left; at centre, half-length to right, perhaps seated; and at right her head and shoulders appear as in the picture, turned slightly to left with her chin resting on her hand. In the picture she is seated.

David Blayney Brown
March 2009

1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.61–2 no.81 (pl.91).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Three Sketches of a Woman: Study for ‘The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son’s Prodigality’ c.1807–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2009, 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-three-sketches-of-a-woman-study-for-the-unpaid-bill-or-the-r1130683, accessed 16 April 2024.