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 Study of the Belvedere Hermes ?1793

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study of the Belvedere Hermes’ ?1793
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Study of the Belvedere Hermes ?1793
D00064
Turner Bequest V L
Black and white chalks and stump on laid buff-grey paper, 400 x 216 mm
Watermark ‘C.A & C’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘WT’ (monogram) on a plinth, lower right
Inscribed in red ink ‘V.L’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘V L’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In this study the modelling has reached a new level of skill, anticipating the accomplishment of Tate D00067 (Turner Bequest V O) in this series. The Hermes, formerly thought to represent Antinous, is a Roman marble copy of a fourth-century BC Praxitelean figure that came into the possession of the Farnese family, and stood in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome until it was transferred to the Vatican collections.
Technical notes:
In Peter Bower’s view the sheet is perhaps of French manufacture; it is from a single-faced mould.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with the Turner bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Study of the Belvedere Hermes ?1793 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-study-of-the-belvedere-hermes-r1140268, accessed 24 April 2024.