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 A Dentist and his Wife and Son: Study for 'The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son's Prodigality' c.1807-8

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Dentist and his Wife and Son: Study for 'The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son's Prodigality'’ c.1807-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 78 Recto:
A Dentist and his Wife and Son: Study for ‘The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son’s Prodigality’ circa 1807–8
D06488
Turner Bequest XCIX 74
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 115 x 190 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘74’ bottom left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘XCIX 74’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted. In marginal notes to a copy of Finberg now in Tate’s Library, Edward Croft-Murray was the first to observe that these figures are the same as in folio 77 of the sketchbook (D06486; Turner Bequest XCIX 73), for which see comment and for The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son’s Prodigality (collection of the Schindler Family)1 and related drawings in this sketchbook. Here, Turner has moved the son between his parents as they appear in the picture. However, the mother is also shown in an alternative position to his left, next to her husband.

David Blayney Brown
March 2009

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

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘A Dentist and his Wife and Son: 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-a-dentist-and-his-wife-and-son-study-for-the-unpaid-bill-or-r1130684, accessed 24 April 2024.