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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Royal Academy c.1789-99 > Studies from the Antique and Other ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Half-length Study of the Fighting Gladiator ?1790

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Half-length Study of the Fighting Gladiator’ ?1790
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Half-length Study of the Fighting Gladiator ?1790
D00070
Turner Bequest V R
Black and white chalks with stump on dark buff paper, 337 x 269 mm
Inscribed by Turner in black chalk ‘Turner | [...]’ top left, inverted
Inscribed in red ink ‘V.R’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a very tentative and presumably early essay. The famous original from which the Royal Academy’s cast was taken had been in the Borghese collection, housed in the Villa Borghese in Rome, since its discovery at Nettuno (ancient Antium) in the early seventeenth century. The Belvedere Apollo (for which see chiefly Tate D00056–D00058; Turner Bequest V C–E) was also discovered at Antium. Other studies of the Gladiator, also known as the ‘Fighting Gladiator’, are Tate D00069, D00071 and D40219 (Turner Bequest V Q, V S, V P [verso]).
The verso of this sheet is D40220.
Technical notes:
The top right corner has been torn away.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Half-length Study of the Fighting Gladiator ?1790 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-half-length-study-of-the-fighting-gladiator-r1140248, accessed 26 April 2024.