Joseph Mallord William Turner

A Standing Man with Raised Arms

c.1799–1800

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Studies for Pictures Sketchbook
Medium
Ink and graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 210 × 135 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D04016
Turner Bequest LXIX 22

Catalogue entry

This figure, like that on folio 19 recto (D04013) and perhaps some others in this book, may have been copied from a print after an Old Master painting. Turner’s intention may have been that it represents Elijah, exhorting the true God of the Israelites to send rain and prove the priests of Baal in error. That subject was never executed, but was transmuted into another Bible subject, The Fifth Plague of Egypt (Indianapolis Museum of Art),1 exhibited in 1800, in which this figure, in different drapery, appears on the right of the composition as Moses. The drawing on the next page, folio 23 recto (D04017), may also relate to the Baal subject.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.10–12 no.13, pl.10 (colour).
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

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