Joseph Mallord William Turner

Study of the Apollo Belvedere

?1792–3

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Studies from the Antique and Other Sculpture
Medium: Chalk on paper
Dimensions: Support: 473 x 314 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D00058
Turner Bequest V E

Catalogue entry

As Finberg points out, this study is unfinished, although the tonal modelling is highly developed, with the figure illuminated against a shadowed background.

For the Apollo Belvedere see principally, in this group of studies, Tate D00056 (Turner Bequest V C), which also depicts the figure whole-length. Other studies of the Apollo in this group are Tate D00057 and D40218 (Turner Bequest V D, O [verso]).

Technical notes:

The paper is off-white wove, attributed by Finberg to Whatman. Peter Bower, however, considers Edmeads and Pine of Ivy Mill, near Maidstone, a more likely maker.1 It was possibly manufactured as a drawing paper during the firm’s experiments with such papers in the last years of the eighteenth century. The sheet was formerly laid down on modern white cartridge paper. There is a horizontal fold across the centre and the lower right corner has been torn away.

Note in Tate catalogue files.

Verso:

Blank; black chalk trials.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

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