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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Birmingham and Coventry Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?The Head and Shoulders of a Woman ?1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?The Head and Shoulders of a Woman’ ?1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 70 Recto:
?The Head and Shoulders of a Woman ?1830
D22457
Turner Bequest CCXL 70
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 68 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘70’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXL – 70’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight, rapid sketch appears to have been made with the page turned vertically, and seems to show the head and shoulders of a woman, with the curve of the back to the left, the right shoulder at the centre, and the perhaps partially undraped bust at the right. The head below the hair is blank, and may either represent the face turned towards the viewer but left blank, or the lost profile of the face turned away.
For other figure studies in this sketchbook, see under folio 1 verso (D22324).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?The Head and Shoulders of a Woman ?1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-the-head-and-shoulders-of-a-woman-r1148607, accessed 20 September 2024.