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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > Studies for Pictures Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Egyptian Artefacts, including a Canopic Jar with Ape or Baboon Head c.1799-1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Egyptian Artefacts, including a Canopic Jar with Ape or Baboon Head’ c.1799-1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 130 Recto:
Studies of Egyptian Artefacts, including a Canopic Jar with Ape or Baboon Head c.1799–1802
D04150
Turner Bequest LXIX 131
Pencil on blue laid paper, 210 x 135 mm
Watermark: Strasburg lily (trimmed)
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘XA¿ | BGAX | NELXIIG | ¿IXP¿F | NVHVFN | XNKI | X’ top left, ‘F¿¿Id | IY | CO | I¿’ towards bottom right, and ‘20’ bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘131’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘LXIX-131’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. Other studies of ancient artefacts, presumably made with an eye to historical subject pictures like The Tenth Plague of Egypt, exhibited in 1802 (Tate N00470),1 are on folios 65 verso, 66 verso and 67 verso (D04074, D04076, D04078).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.16–17 no.17, pl.13 (colour).

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Studies of Egyptian Artefacts, including a Canopic Jar with Ape or Baboon Head c.1799–1802 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 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-studies-of-egyptian-artefacts-including-a-canopic-jar-with-r1178030, accessed 26 April 2024.