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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Liber Studiorum notes c.1807-19 > Finance Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Cow Lying Down and the Head of a Cow in Profile c.1807-14

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Cow Lying Down and the Head of a Cow in Profile’ c.1807-14
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
A Cow Lying Down and the Head of a Cow in Profile c.1807–14
D08291
Turner Bequest CXXII 6
Pencil on white wove paper, 69 x 112 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXII – 6’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
A cow (or perhaps a calf) occupies the middle of the page, seen from the side lying down with its head turned towards the artist. The head and neck of the same or a similar animal in profile appear above on a slightly larger scale, almost overlapping with the back of the central study. There is a related sketch, showing a head and front quarters, on folio 7 recto (D08293). Ian Warrell has remarked upon the ‘remarkable frequency’ of such studies in Turner’s early sketchbooks.1

Matthew Imms
September 2013

1
Ian Warrell in Warrell, Blandine Chavanne and Michael Kitson, Turner et le Lorrain, exhibition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy 2002, p.186, listing numerous examples.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Cow Lying Down and the Head of a Cow in Profile c.1807–14 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-cow-lying-down-and-the-head-of-a-cow-in-profile-r1147767, accessed 25 April 2024.