Joseph Mallord William Turner

Sheet of Studies: An Old Bearded Man Seen in Profile with a Boy Reaching Past him, Holding a Hat

c.1796–7

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Figure Studies
Medium
Chalk and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 344 x 242 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D00720
Turner Bequest XXIX O

Catalogue entry

Chumbley and Warrell plausibly suggest that this sheet was executed during Turner’s time at the Academy Life Class; see also Tate D00719, D00721 and D00723 (Turner Bequest XXIX N, P, and R). They also propose that the boy’s face is a self-portrait. This is borne out by the presence on the sheet of a study in pencil of an eye and a nose, very possibly related to the head of the boy and likely to have been drawn in a mirror. Wilton notes that the composition, with the boy reaching forward towards the picture plane past another figure, anticipates that of the unfinished canvas Two Women with a Letter (Tate N05501),1 probably of about 1830. The monogram appears to be more than a mere exercise in calligraphy, and is apparently intended as a signature to the drawing.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.282 no.448, pl.449 (colour).
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

Read full Catalogue entry

Explore

You might like

Left Right