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 Seated Woman and a Dentist's Shop: Studies for 'The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son's Prodigality' c.1807-8

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Seated Woman and a Dentist's Shop: Studies for 'The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son's Prodigality'’ c.1807-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 79 Verso:
A Seated Woman and a Dentist’s Shop: Studies for ‘The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son’s Prodigality’ circa 1807–8
D06491
Turner Bequest XCIX 75a
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 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). Here, Turner has drawn two separate elements of the picture, leaving the central portion of the leaf blank. At right is a study for the right quarter of the picture, displaying part of the interior of the dentist’s shop with an armchair; this seems to connect with the drawing on folio 80 verso (D17159; Turner Bequest CXCV (a) I), which is for the left half of the picture if the latter is folded over it. At left of the present leaf is a drawing for the dentist’s wife, seated and resting her chin on her hand as in the picture, but turned to right instead of left.

David Blayney Brown
March 2009

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

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘A Seated Woman and a Dentist’s Shop: Studies 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-seated-woman-and-a-dentists-shop-studies-for-the-unpaid-r1130687, accessed 27 April 2024.