J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Berwick Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Lady at a Window or Mirror 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Lady at a Window or Mirror’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 57 Recto:
A Lady at a Window or Mirror 1831
D25745
Turner Bequest CCLXV 57
Pencil on white wove paper, 96 x 59 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘57’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXV 57’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
At the top of the page, with the sketchbook turned to the left, is a rough sketch described by Finberg as the ‘bust of [a] lady holding a visor?’1 If she is holding a visor or mask then she may be standing at a window during a costumed fete. There are other sketches of figures in fancy costumes on folios 18a, 25, 26, 32a, 43a, 54a, 55a, 56 (D25673, D25686, D25688, D25700, D25721, D25722, D25740, D25742, D25743, D25754). Otherwise she may be seated at a mirror and holding a hand mirror, although Turner’s changes to the sketch make it hard to read. This interpretation is in keeping with the sketch on folio 56 verso (D25744) of two women sitting on a sofa. A watercolour on blue paper made at Petworth in 1827 of A Lady in a Black Dress at her Toilet (Tate D22741; Turner Bequest CCXLIV 79) shows a figure in a similar pose.
At the bottom of the page is a slight sketch of a landscape with a large hill.

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.853.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘A Lady at a Window or Mirror 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-lady-at-a-window-or-mirror-r1134109, accessed 13 May 2025.