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

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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 81 Recto:
A Dentist and his Wife and Son: Study for ‘The Unpaid Bill, or the Dentist Reproving his Son’s Prodigality’ circa 1807–8
D06493
Turner Bequest XCIX 77
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 115 x 190 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘77’ bottom left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘XCIX 77’ top left, inverted
 
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). This is a much slighter, almost indecipherable version of a similar composition to 77 recto, showing the dentist seated at left, his wife to right and their son standing to her right rather than between his parents as in the picture.

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-r1130689, accessed 24 April 2024.