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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > East Sussex c.1806-20 > Hastings Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Verse (Inscription by Turner) circa 1809-11

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Verse (Inscription by Turner)’ circa 1809-11
Folio 82 Verso:
Verse (Inscription by Turner) circa 1809–11
D07721
Turner Bequest CXI 82a
Pencil on white wove paper, 88 x 110 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rosalind Mallord Turner’s reading of Turner’s inscription for the 1990 Tate exhibition is largely followed here:
Exhausted gasping in the throw of death
The mighty Python writhed
The harder rock his coiling body wounds
Beneath the face the crashing soul demands
In dreadful hold they shift along the ground
For verses on the slaughter of the dragon Python by Apollo in this sketchbook, and their background, see chiefly note to folio 17 (D07617).

David Blayney Brown
May 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Verse (Inscription by Turner) c.1809–11’, catalogue entry, May 2011, 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/verse-inscription-by-turner-r1131208, accessed 25 April 2024.