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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Hesperides (1) Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Figures, for 'Dido and Aeneas' 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Figures, for 'Dido and Aeneas'’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Verso:
Studies of Figures, for ‘Dido and Aeneas’ 1805
D05775
Turner Bequest XCIII 5a
Pen and ink and brown wash on white wove paper, prepared with a grey wash, 171 x 262 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Dido and Aeneas (Tate N00494)1 was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1814 but probably painted earlier. For the picture and subject, see especially catalogue note to the coloured study in the contemporary Studies for Pictures: Isleworth sketchbook (Tate D05520; Turner Bequest XC 21). The present studies include, at lower left, the prototypes of the figures of Dido and Aeneas themselves who stand in the right foreground of the picture, and groups of figures and horses associated with their retinues and with Dido’s dawn hunting expedition.
See also folio 4 verso, 6 and 7 (D05773, D05776, D05778 ) for other figure studies which have been associated with the picture.

David Blayney Brown
October 2007

1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.92–3 no.129 (pl.135).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Studies of Figures, for ‘Dido and Aeneas’ 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2007, 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-studies-of-figures-for-dido-and-aeneas-r1129996, accessed 19 April 2024.