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 and a Rearing Horse, ?for 'Dido and Aeneas' and 'The Destruction of Sodom' 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Figures and a Rearing Horse, ?for 'Dido and Aeneas' and 'The Destruction of Sodom'’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Verso:
Studies of Figures and a Rearing Horse, ?for ‘Dido and Aeneas’ and ‘The Destruction of Sodom’ 1805
D05777
Turner Bequest XCIII 6a
Pen and ink 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). From Finberg onwards it has been assumed that this study and a version with more figures on folio 7 fit completely with a group connected with the picture beginning on folio 4 verso (D05773). However, they develop a motif of figures surrounding a rearing horse which was not used in Dido and Aeneas but appeared instead in The Destruction of Sodom (Tate N00474).2 See note to 4 verso for discussion.

David Blayney Brown
October 2007

1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.92–3 no.129 (pl.135).
2
Ibid., p.44 no.56 (pl. 66).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Studies of Figures and a Rearing Horse, ?for ‘Dido and Aeneas’ and ‘The Destruction of Sodom’ 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-and-a-rearing-horse-for-dido-and-aeneas-r1129998, accessed 24 April 2024.