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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1813 > Chemistry and Apuleia Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Study for 'Apullia in Search of Appullus' c.1813

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Study for 'Apullia in Search of Appullus'’ c.1813
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 68 Recto:
A Study for ‘Apullia in Search of Appullus’ c.1813
D09985
Turner Bequest CXXXV 68
Pencil and pen and ink on white wove paper, 88 x 113 mm
Part watermark ‘C Wi | 1’
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘TURNER’ bottom right, ascending vertically
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘68’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CXXXV – 68’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing is a brief continuation of foliage from the main body of the composition for the painting Apullia in Search of Appullus (Tate N00495), exhibited at the British Institution in 1814,1 on folio 67 verso opposite (D09984).2 Turner’s prominent inscription appears to be a doodle interlinking the letters of his surname as a curlicued semi-monogram, with the vertical stroke of the ‘T’ held within the ‘U’, and the ‘E’ and ‘R’ combined; there are further variations inside the back cover (Tate D40813).
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.91–2 no.128, pl.134.
2
See also Butlin, Wilson and Gage 1974, p.76; Nicholson 1980, p.683 note 22; Butlin and Joll 1984, p.92; and Butlin 2001, p.8.
Technical notes:
The page appears rather scrappy, with pencil offsetting from the opposite page, staining from the overlaps of the leather cover inside the back of the book, and the ink drawing on the verso (D09986) showing through.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Study for ‘Apullia in Search of Appullus’ c.1813 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, 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-study-for-apullia-in-search-of-appullus-r1147940, accessed 26 April 2024.