Joseph Mallord William Turner

Reclining Female Nude

1809

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Lowther Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 83 × 114 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D07917
Turner Bequest CXIII 43 a

Catalogue entry

Drawn with the sketchbook inverted. The model’s foot continues over the stub of the next leaf of the sketchbook, demonstrating that the leaf was removed by Turner himself before making this drawing, and then on what is now folio 44 (D07918). On the verso of 44 is a very faint pencil outline of the same torso.
Noting the apparent intimacy of this study, Bailey wonders if this is ‘Sarah [Danby] posing for William [Turner]’. But see Introduction to the sketchbook.

David Blayney Brown
July 2009

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