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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Academical Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Standing Female Nude with Bound Hair, Leaning against a Draped Sill c.1798-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Standing Female Nude with Bound Hair, Leaning against a Draped Sill’ c.1798-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 14 Recto:
A Standing Female Nude with Bound Hair, Leaning against a Draped Sill c.1798–9
D01829
Turner Bequest XLIII 13
Pencil, watercolour and gouache on blue laid paper prepared with a red-brown ground, 216 x 140 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘13’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLIII – 13’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The pose of Turner’s model in this study is close to that of a figure studied by Henry Fuseli (1741–1825) in a drawing dated by him ‘Acad Nov 1796’ (British Museum, London, 1916,0419.3). Turner’s drawing, however, does not seem to be a reworking of Fuseli’s subject, which partakes of its author’s characteristic fantasy.
The present drawing has every appearance of having been made at the Royal Academy Life Class, and on stylistic grounds can surely not be dated earlier than the rest of this book. Possibly Fuseli inscribed his own drawing a considerable time afterwards and misremembered the date. His model differs in several important respects from Turner’s and it is more than likely that he embellished his subject from his imagination. He was a visitor at the Life Class in 1796, 1798, 1799 and 1801, of which the last two are most consistent with the dating of Turner’s sketchbook. The compiler is grateful to Royal Academy curator Annette Wickham for help with this entry.
This is the last of a sequence of life studies beginning on folio 1 recto (D01816–D01826, D01828, D01829; Turner Bequest XLIII 2, 3, 3a, 4–7, 1, 8–10, 12, 13).
Verso:
Blank, prepared with a red-brown ground.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Standing Female Nude with Bound Hair, Leaning against a Draped Sill c.1798–9 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-a-standing-female-nude-with-bound-hair-leaning-against-a-r1174029, accessed 24 April 2024.