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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > Academies Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Torso and Legs of a Nude Woman c.1800-7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Torso and Legs of a Nude Woman’ c.1800-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 36 Recto:
Torso and Legs of a Nude Woman circa 1800–7
D05210
Turner Bequest LXXXIV 37
Pencil on white wove paper, 73 x 119 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘37’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXXIV 37’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of the more physically explicit sketches in this sketchbook, showing the model’s legs splayed. As Ian Warrell suggests, it could have given grounds for Turner’s Executors to exclude the book from the Schedule of the Bequest.

David Blayney Brown
November 2004

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Torso and Legs of a Nude Woman c.1800–7 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2004, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-torso-and-legs-of-a-nude-woman-r1178391, accessed 25 April 2024.