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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Work for Earls Egremont and Lonsdale ... > Lowther Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Reclining Female Nude 1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Reclining Female Nude’ 1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Verso:
Reclining Female Nude 1809
D07917
Turner Bequest CXIII 43a
Pencil on white wove paper, 83 x 114 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted. The model’s foot continues over the stub of the next leaf of the sketchbook, demonstrating that the leaf was removed by Turner himself before making this drawing, and then on what is now folio 44 (D07918). On the verso of 44 is a very faint pencil outline of the same torso.
Noting the apparent intimacy of this study, Bailey wonders if this is ‘Sarah [Danby] posing for William [Turner]’. But see Introduction to the sketchbook.

David Blayney Brown
July 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Reclining Female Nude 1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-reclining-female-nude-r1135873, accessed 20 April 2024.