Joseph Mallord William Turner

A Group of Supplicating Figures and Dying Horses

c.1799–1800

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Studies for Pictures Sketchbook
Medium
Ink and graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 135 × 210 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D04017
Turner Bequest LXIX 23

Catalogue entry

This sketch is close in technique to the studies of figures for the story of the Welsh Bards; see folio 18 recto (D04012), and inside the back cover (D04101; Turner Bequest LXIX 87). It may relate to the proposed Biblical ‘Baal’ subject; see folios 20 recto and 21 recto (D04014, D04015). The figures were finally used in the central group of The Fifth Plague of Egypt, exhibited in 1800 (Indianapolis Museum of Art)1. There may also be a connection with The Destruction of Sodom of about 1805 (Tate N00474).2
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.10–12 no.13, pl.10 (colour).
2
Ibid., p.44 no.56, pl.66.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

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