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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Copy-Drawings 1794-8 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Classical Head; Buildings ?1797

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Classical Head; Buildings’ ?1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Classical Head; Buildings ?1797
D41458
Pencil on white laid paper, 327 x 201 mm
Watermark ‘ER 179[?4]’
Inscribed by Turner in brush and blue colour ‘61’ centre, descending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These two slight drawings, not mentioned in Finberg’s 1909 Turner Bequest catalogue,1 are in a controlled Neo-classical style unlike Turner’s usual manner. However, they are probably his work rather than that of a pupil, and may relate to the studies of classical heads and other subjects that he occasionally made at this period. Compare for instance the helmeted heads on Tate D00721 (Turner Bequest XXIX P), and for the technique the head (apparently of Christ) on Tate D41450 (Turner Bequest CCCLXXIX 3 v).
The recto is D00857 (Turner Bequest XXXII A).

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

1
See A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.64.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Classical Head; Buildings ?1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-classical-head-buildings-r1140078, accessed 24 April 2024.