Catalogue entry
Made with the page turned horizontally, this rough sketch may be related to the same project as that on the following page folio 60 recto opposite (
D02089), and perhaps that on folio 61 recto (
D02091). The standing figure appears to be encouraging or haranguing the others, who consist of women and children; this is not, however, the Bard and his audience as Turner presents them in the 1800 watercolour
Caernarvon Castle, North Wales (Tate
D04164; Turner Bequest LXX M).
1The chariot-like form suggests a subject connected with the Biblical Crossing of the Red Sea, or
The Army of the Medes destroyed in the Desart by a Whirlwind, which Turner was to exhibit in 1801 (now lost);
2 compare folio 83 recto (
D02120). Alternatively these drawings may illustrate one of the Plagues of Egypt, two of which Turner used as subjects for pictures about this time:
The Fifth Plague of Egypt in 1800 (Indianapolis Museum of Art)
3 – compare folios 79 recto and 116 verso (
D02114,
D02169); and
The Tenth Plague of Egypt in 1802 (Tate
N00470).
4
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