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 > Copies after Other Artists > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of the Lower Half of an Ascending Figure ?1793

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study of the Lower Half of an Ascending Figure’ ?1793
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Study of the Lower Half of an Ascending Figure ?1793
D00196
Turner Bequest XVIII A
Black and white chalks on laid blue wrapping paper, 350 x 286 mm
Watermark: ornamented fleur-de-lys, countermarked ‘C.A & C’
Inscribed in red ink ‘XVIII.A’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XVIII A’ bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘D00196’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The study is copied from a drawing in black and white chalks on buff paper by the Scottish artist James Nevay (c.1730–after 1811) after Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican in Rome. Nevay’s drawing is dated 1772, and was given by him with five other drawings after figures from the Last Judgment to the Royal Academy in 1773. The figure drawn here is to be found in the centre of the left-hand side of the composition. Another, larger copy of the whole figure by Turner is in a private collection; the latter collection has also the study of a foot, from a classical figure, and, on the verso, a drawing of the head of the Fighting Gladiator (see from this series Tate D00069, D00070, D40219; Turner Bequest V Q, R, and P [verso]).
The verso is D40233.
Technical notes:
For the paper, see notes to Tate D00064 (Turner Bequest V L).

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Study of the Lower Half of an Ascending Figure ?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, March 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-study-of-the-lower-half-of-an-ascending-figure-r1177679, accessed 26 April 2024.