Joseph Mallord William Turner

The woman on the right of this group, raising a veil or scarf over her head, and the one to her right with her right hand above her shoulder were recognisably incorporated as the flanking figures of the main group in Turner’s mythological painting Apullia in Search of Appullus (Tate N00495), exhibited at the British Institution in 1814;1 they also relate quite closely to the two young women in Claude Lorrain’s Jacob with Laban and his Daughters, then in the collection of Turner’s patron Lord Egremont (Petworth House, Sussex),2 which was the provocatively close source of Turner’s composition. Whether Turner had access to the Egremont picture during the gestation of his variation is not established; at this stage at least he appears to have been working from memory.3

For related studies on adjacent pages, see under folio 63 verso (D09976).4 The present drawing continues a little way onto folio 66 recto opposite, with seated or kneeling figures (D09981).

Technical notes:

A small, circled spot of foxing at the bottom right shows through from the recto (D09979).