Joseph Mallord William Turner

Studies of Figures and a Rearing Horse, ?for ‘Dido and Aeneas’ and ‘The Destruction of Sodom’

1805

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Hesperides (1) Sketchbook
Medium
Pen and ink on paper
Dimensions
Support: 171 x 262 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D05777
Turner Bequest XCIII 6 a

Catalogue entry

Dido and Aeneas (Tate N00494)1 was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1814 but probably painted earlier. For the picture and subject, see especially catalogue note to the coloured study in the contemporary Studies for Pictures: Isleworth sketchbook (Tate D05520; Turner Bequest XC 21). From Finberg onwards it has been assumed that this study and a version with more figures on folio 7 fit completely with a group connected with the picture beginning on folio 4 verso (D05773). However, they develop a motif of figures surrounding a rearing horse which was not used in Dido and Aeneas but appeared instead in The Destruction of Sodom (Tate N00474).2 See note to 4 verso for discussion.

David Blayney Brown
October 2007

1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.92–3 no.129 (pl.135).
2
Ibid., p.44 no.56 (pl. 66).

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