Joseph Mallord William Turner

Studies of Figures at Imola

1819

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Route to Rome Sketchbook
Medium
Pen and ink on paper
Dimensions
Support: 114 × 88 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D13864
Turner Bequest CLXXI 3 a

Catalogue entry

The inscribed place name indicates that Turner sketched these six figure studies at Imola, a town approximately twenty miles south-east of Bologna which the artist passed en route towards Ancona. Landscape views of Imola can also be found on folios 17 verso and 19 verso (D13890 and D13894), as well as in the Venice to Ancona sketchbook (Tate D14555; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 33a).
Turner often recorded ethnic and native costumes which he observed during his European travels, for example see his description of women at Foligno on folio 20 verso (D13896). See also the Scotch Figures sketchbook (Tate, Turner Bequest LIX) and the Swiss Figures sketchbook (Tate, Turner Bequest LXXVIII). Amongst the group of men and women on this page is the figure of a pilgrim carrying a staff.

Nicola Moorby
March 2010

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