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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Switzerland 1802 > Studies in the Louvre Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Combat of Hercules and Achelous, after Domenichino 1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Combat of Hercules and Achelous, after Domenichino’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 77 Recto:
Combat of Hercules and Achelous, after Domenichino 1802
D04374
Turner Bequest LXXII 77
Pencil on white wove paper prepared with a grey wash, 114 x 128 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘The Companion’ (this then crossed out) top left, descending vertically
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘77’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXXII–77’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s comments on the picture are on folio 76 verso of this sketchbook (D04373). These begin with the same words crossed out here. The picture is companion to Hercules and Cacus, for which see folio 75 verso (D04371) for Turner’s copy. Both subjects are from Ovid’s Metamophoses.
Turner sketched his own, different version of a composition of Hercules and Achelous, as one of a group of Ovidian subjects, several years later in his Hesperides (2) sketchbook (Tate D05865; Turner Bequest XCIV 13).

David Blayney Brown
July 2005

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Combat of Hercules and Achelous, after Domenichino 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2005, 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-combat-of-hercules-and-achelous-after-domenichino-r1129783, accessed 16 July 2025.