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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > French Tour 1821 > Dieppe, Rouen and Paris Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Copies of Poussin's 'Landscape, with Diogenes' and Two Pictures by Claude Lorrain in the Louvre Collection ('Seaport with the Landing of Cleopatra' and 'Landscape, with Samuel Annointing David'); Designs for a Picture Entitled 'The Prodigal Son' 1821

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Copies of Poussin's 'Landscape, with Diogenes' and Two Pictures by Claude Lorrain in the Louvre Collection ('Seaport with the Landing of Cleopatra' and 'Landscape, with Samuel Annointing David'); Designs for a Picture Entitled 'The Prodigal Son'’ 1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto:
Copies of Poussin’s ‘Landscape, with Diogenes’ and Two Pictures by Claude Lorrain in the Louvre Collection (‘Seaport with the Landing of Cleopatra’ and ‘Landscape, with Samuel Annointing David’); Designs for a Picture Entitled ‘The Prodigal Son’ 1821
D24537
Turner Bequest CCLVIII 20
Pencil on white wove paper, 123 x 118 mm
Inscriptions in pencil by Turner (transcribed below)
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest Stamp bottom centre
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘20’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLVIII – 20’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
On this page Turner demonstrates his dedication to the art of the old masters that he saw on a visit to the Louvre, with two studies after paintings by Claude Lorrain (1600–1682) and one after Nicholas Poussin (1594–1666), accompanied by notes. This is one of four pages on which Turner made studies from paintings in the museum (see folio 19 verso; Tate D24536; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 19a).
At the top of the page is a rather cursory compositional outline of Poussin’s Landscape with Diogenes, 1648 (Musée du Louvre) accompanied by the following inscribed notes:
The sky is warm. Some Blue clouds over the Hadrian’s Villa | to [?]left s[i]d[e] the white or rather yellow clouds are very pure and smaller | than usual with Gaspar. Shadows, of the Building | in the middle of the P[icture]. remarkable | cold Blue, the lights warm, | the shadows of the nearer | Building more reddish grey | or a[...] purple and this | tells in the light almost do. | The trees are grey and dull | green and the whole | foreground cold, the earth part | particularly cold with a few touched of warm red, but the ground | in the Picture never protrudes itself or through the Colours.
The second study (much more carefully outlined than the first) is of Claude’s The Disembarkation of Cleopatra at Tarus, (Le Débarquement de Cléopâtre) c.1641–3 (Musée du Louvre). The flag on the ship is labelled ‘Red’, the figure in the smaller vessel ‘R’ (for his red clothing), two more figures wearing red (‘R’) at the right foreground, and another ‘B’ for brown. A figure at the right of a group of three figures at the centre-right is numbered ‘1’ and two figures at the extreme right are numbered ‘2’ and ‘2’. These numbers are referred to in Turner’s notes, transcribed below:
This is warm, the | sky rather yellow. | The whole of the B[uilding] | in shade excepting the | Porch somewhat warmer | than Brown with | yellow for the lights. The | figures are the darker | parts of the picture, | particularly the Blue | which is only bright | by intensity of Ultra. | The sea is rather | heavy from the <...> | above cause the | Reds are clearer colors. | The ships are <beautiful> | brown and yellow, with red and Blue | among the ornament. The figure below in Red is the | largest portion of pure col. 1 then 2 then the orange in the centre with the striped carpeted | Boats; the Queen of Sheba next, in Blue then 1 and 2 very dark.
The bottom study is of Claude’s Landscape, with Samuel Anointing David, (David sacre roi par Samuel), c.1642–3 (Musée du Louvre). As well as labelling the clothing of several figures ‘R’, ‘G’ and ‘B’, he has numbered the study in reference to his notes:
The sky is very blue at the top with some | small white clouds with grey shadows, | but at the Hor[izon] yellow, so that the distant mountains | are relieved and Blue. ½ the 5 of | ½ the sky the distant | Building light and warm | and the Bridge carefully | relieved by a mass of wood | in shade, then checked | by 2. the figures of the Pro[phet] and Father B. and Red, the | Reds as before but the Blues are | lightly corn [...] which | with the Red keeps all the | mass there green | and last white and Purple | All in the shadow | clear and cool, the | Lights warm yellow, the | architecture rather cool and approaching to green, Warm trees | excepting 5.

Thomas Ardill
February 2013

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Copies of Poussin’s ‘Landscape, with Diogenes’ and Two Pictures by Claude Lorrain in the Louvre Collection (‘Seaport with the Landing of Cleopatra’ and ‘Landscape, with Samuel Annointing David’); Designs for a Picture Entitled ‘The Prodigal Son’ 1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-copies-of-poussins-landscape-with-diogenes-and-two-pictures-r1146324, accessed 08 May 2025.