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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Marine subjects c.1803-14 > Nelson Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Five Sketches of a Man's Face in Profile to Left 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Five Sketches of a Man's Face in Profile to Left’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
Five Sketches of a Man’s Face in Profile to Left 1805
D05464
Turner Bequest LXXXIX 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 184 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘16’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXXIX 16’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Unfortunately the subject is unidentified. Presumably Turner drew this man from life when visiting the Victory and intended to include him in his Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory (Tate N00480;1 see Introduction to the sketchbook for the picture and related works). He may be one of the men described on folio 12 (D05462; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 14), since that leaf was known to Finberg as folio 14 and the present one as folio 16 – tantalisingly close. For a similar portrait sketch, see folio 27 (D05470; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 20).
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.46 no.58 (pl.68).
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
March 2006

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Five Sketches of a Man’s Face in Profile to Left 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2006, 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-five-sketches-of-a-mans-face-in-profile-to-left-r1139274, accessed 24 April 2024.