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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > Studies for Pictures Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Seated Woman Listening c.1799-1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Seated Woman Listening’ c.1799-1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 19 Recto:
A Seated Woman Listening c.1799–1802
D04013
Turner Bequest LXIX 19
Pencil, ink with white chalk on blue laid paper, 210 x 135 mm
Watermark: Strasburg lily (trimmed)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘19’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXIX-19’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although there is a strong possibility that this figure is copied from a work by another artist, perhaps a print after an Italian Renaissance composition, it seems to have been conceived as a member of the group of listeners round the harp-playing Bard sketched on folio 18 recto (D04012) and inside the back cover (D04101; Turner Bequest LXIX 87). In the latter drawing the figure in question is immediately to the right of the group of dancers; on D04012 the figure, just to the left of the dancers, has been obliterated by smudging. The technique of this drawing has features in common with that on folios 20 recto, 21 recto and 22 recto (D04014–D04016); these all seem to relate to a different subject.
Technical notes:
There is a blue colour trial at the outer edge.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Seated Woman Listening c.1799–1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-seated-woman-listening-r1177891, accessed 16 April 2024.