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 Standing Man with Raised Arms c.1799-1800

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Standing Man with Raised Arms’ c.1799-1800
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
A Standing Man with Raised Arms c.1799–1800
D04016
Turner Bequest LXIX 22
Pencil, ink and white chalk on blue laid paper, 210 x 135 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘22’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXIX-22’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This figure, like that on folio 19 recto (D04013) and perhaps some others in this book, may have been copied from a print after an Old Master painting. Turner’s intention may have been that it represents Elijah, exhorting the true God of the Israelites to send rain and prove the priests of Baal in error. That subject was never executed, but was transmuted into another Bible subject, The Fifth Plague of Egypt (Indianapolis Museum of Art),1 exhibited in 1800, in which this figure, in different drapery, appears on the right of the composition as Moses. The drawing on the next page, folio 23 recto (D04017), may also relate to the Baal subject.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.10–12 no.13, pl.10 (colour).
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Standing Man with Raised Arms c.1799–1800 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-standing-man-with-raised-arms-r1177894, accessed 26 April 2024.