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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales 1798 > Dynevor Castle Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Girls' Heads 1798

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Girls' Heads’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Verso:
Girls’ Heads 1798
D01464
Turner Bequest XL 2a
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 135 x 95 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘91’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘XL – 2 a’ top right, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, these three slight studies in pen and blue-grey ink are evidently from three different girls, as the hair of each is arranged in a distinctive way. The subjects are also of different ages. They may be members of the circle of the Narraways at Bristol, with whom Turner stayed before setting out on this tour.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Girls’ Heads 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-girls-heads-r1173700, accessed 16 April 2024.