This sketch belongs to a large group of vignette studies which relate to Turner’s illustrations for John Macrone’s 1839 edition of Thomas Moore’s
The Epicurean, a Tale: and Alciphron, a Poem. Unlike most of the works in this group, however, this delicate watercolour appears to be a finished illustration that was ultimately not chosen to be engraved for publication. Although there are a number of moments in Moore’s tale when the hero, Alciphron falls into a deep sleep, Jan Piggott has identified the following passage as the most likely source of inspiration for Turner’s illustration:
1At length, the intense glow of the sun over my head, and, still more, that ever restless agitation in my heart, became too much even for strength like mine to endure. Exhausted, I threw myself down at the base of the pyramid – choosing my place directly under the portal, where, even should slumber surprise me, my heart, if not my ear, might still keep watch, and her footstep, light as it was, could not fail to awake me.
(Thomas Moore, The Epicurean, 1839, p.45)
In Turner’s drawing, Alciphron seems to have collapsed from sheer exhaustion under a palm tree against a brilliant background of a pink and gold sky. The white orb on the right side of the composition may allude to the sleeper’s dreams, which centre on the lovely Alethe, Priestess of the Moon.
This is one of two more finished studies relating to
The Epicurean that have remained in the Turner Bequest, presumably because they were never selected for publication. The other subject shows Alciphron’s descent into a well located deep within the Egyptian pyramids (see Tate
D27646; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 129).
