
In Tate Britain
Prints and Drawings Room
View by appointment- Artist
- Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
- Medium
- Watercolour, gouache and pen and watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 132 × 190 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
- Reference
- D24762
Turner Bequest CCLIX 197
Display caption
During his travels Turner was always interested in the distinctive qualities of local dress, occasionally making it a separate area of study. As well as this subject, there are sketches of the decorative headwear worn by Breton ladies in Turner's sketchbooks. The lively and humourous group in this work are caught in a celebratory dance, the image acting as a kind of snap-shot of traditional Breton life, much like the images tourists continue to appreciate. The second half of the 1820s was a period when Turner was particularly concerned with figure subjects, both in his oil paintings and his watercolours, although contemporary critics sometimes derided his efforts.
Gallery label, September 2004
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Catalogue entry
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Joseph Mallord William Turner Group of Swiss Peasants
1802 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Group of Peasants
1802 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Group of Peasants with a Plough
1802 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Group of Peasants
1802 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Group of Peasants
1802 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Peasants
1819 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Building on Coast, Also Group of French Peasants
1821 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner East Cowes Castle: The Library, with Figures
1827 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Music in the White Library
1827 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Peasant Family, Northern France
c.1826–8 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner The Church of Saint-Martin at Harfleur, Normandy
c.1832 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner ‘Chasse-Marrée’, Brittany
c.1826–8 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Orléans, Loire Valley
c.1826–8 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner The Château, Nantes
c.1826–8 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Soldiers Drinking in a Café, ? Nantes
c.1826–8