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 > Calais Pier Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study for a Picture of the Parting of Hero and Leander c.1799-1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study for a Picture of the Parting of Hero and Leander’ c.1799-1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Recto:
Study for a Picture of the Parting of Hero and Leander c.1799–1805
D04959
Turner Bequest LXXXI 57
Black and white chalks on blue laid paper, 271 x 436 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and ‘VI’
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Hero and Leander’ towards top right
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–57’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study was made with the page turned horizontally. The subject was not executed until the large painting The Parting of Hero and Leander – from the Greek of Musaeus, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837 (National Gallery, London, on loan to Tate, L01408).1 Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll speculate that it was begun in Rome in 1828;2 at all events, its gestation was a long one.
The motif of the receding staircase and classical city by the sea, present in this sketch, survived into the final work though in all details and indeed in atmosphere it was transformed. A rough sketch from 1798 that may adumbrate the subject is in the Academical sketchbook (Tate D01827; Turner Bequest XLIII 11).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.221–2 no.370, pl.374 (colour)
2
Ibid., p.221.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Study for a Picture of the Parting of Hero and Leander c.1799–1805 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-study-for-a-picture-of-the-parting-of-hero-and-leander-r1178163, accessed 25 April 2024.