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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Nude Studies and Erotica c.1830-40 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Partly Draped Seated Woman, with her Hands Folded c.1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Partly Draped Seated Woman, with her Hands Folded’ c.1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Partly Draped Seated Woman, with her Hands Folded c.1833
D33969
Turner Bequest CCCXLI 254
Pencil on grey wove paper, 236 x 157 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLI – 254’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Ian Warrell has described this drawing, Tate D33939, D33940 and D33941 (Turner Bequest CCCXLI 228, 229, 230) as ‘Four pencil studies of models’, dating them to about 1833, when Turner visited central Europe and Venice, both on the basis of the paper being similar to sheets used then for topographical views; he also observes that the arrangement of the model’s hair ‘recalls the Italian fashions’ of that period.1
It seems likely that three of them show the same woman, although it is unclear whether the figure seen from the back in D33941 is male or female. Here the woman sits with her hands apparently folded below her exposed breasts, perhaps in the act of removing or replacing her clothing.
1
Warrell 2003, p.25.
Verso:
Blank; slight staining, possibly water damage from the 1928 Tate Gallery flood. Inscribed in pencil ‘241 | O’ and ‘254’ top right, ascending vertically.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Partly Draped Seated Woman, with her Hands Folded c.1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-partly-draped-seated-woman-with-her-hands-folded-r1184328, accessed 24 April 2024.