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 A Man's Head in Profile; Inscription by Turner: Instructions on How to Etch c.1792

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Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Man’s Head in Profile; Inscription by Turner: Instructions on How to Etch c.1792
D40213
White chalk on brown laid wrapping paper, 419 x 269 mm
Watermark: ornamented fleur-de-lys (in a shield surmounted by a crown)
Inscribed by Turner in pencil with instructions (see main catalogue entry)
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s notes here are instructions on how to etch:
         ( 1 Get an Etching Goround [sic] 26 
         ( 2 Heet the Back of the P[late]  
         ( 3 Rubb it over with the Ball 
Well Hot ( 4 Dab it over with the Dabber of Soft Musl[in]  
         ( 5 Smoke it over with Wax Tapur 
         ( 6 [?Put] some [?water] at back of the Palte [sic]  
         ( 7 [?Rep.] of Wax 
         Tupetine [sic] Varnish or Lamb [sic] black 
They should be compared with the list of etching equipment on the inside back cover of the Studies near Brighton sketchbook (Tate D40761; Turner Bequest XXX). It is possible that these instructions were copied down, perhaps from the conversation of a colleague, while Turner was planning the ‘Views on the River Avon’ that he seems to have envisaged as a publication resulting from his tour to Bristol in 1791; see the Bristol and Malmesbury sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest VI), especially inside back cover (D40736). An example of what may be an early exercise by Turner in the medium is Tate D41457 (Turner Bequest XXXII Fv); and see also Tate D41464 (Turner Bequest XXXII Cv).
The recto of this sheet is D00057 (Turner Bequest V D).

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Man’s Head in Profile; Inscription by Turner: Instructions on How to Etch c.1792 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-a-mans-head-in-profile-inscription-by-turner-instructions-on-r1140262, accessed 26 April 2024.