Joseph Mallord William Turner

This is one of a series of academy studies from the nude model in this book, and was presumably drawn from a pose at the Royal Academy’s Life School. A male nude in a very similar attitude occurs in a study by Thomas Stothard (1755–1834) in the Royal Academy collection (RA 05/3123), and another of Stothard’s studies seems to show the same model and pose from a different viewpoint (RA 3091). Stothard was a visitor to the Schools in 1799, 1800, 1803 and 1804; see also folio 8 recto (D04916; Turner Bequest LXXXI 15).

There is a possibility that Turner referred to this drawing when developing the pose of Jason in his 1802 mythological painting of that name (Tate N00471);1 see also folios 1 recto and 4 recto (D04902, D04908; Turner Bequest LXXXI 1, 7).