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 Group of Figures, with Some Reclining, and Others Dancing to a Harpist c.1799-1800

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Group of Figures, with Some Reclining, and Others Dancing to a Harpist’ c.1799-1800 (Inside back cover of sketchbook)
Inside back cover of sketchbook
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inside Back Cover:
A Group of Figures, with Some Reclining, and Others Dancing to a Harpist c.1799–1800
D04101
Turner Bequest LXIX 87
Ink on blue laid paper, 135 x 210 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘87’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXIX-87’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This drawing, made with the page turned horizontally, was listed by Finberg without comment in its place between folios 86 and 88 (D04100, D04102);1 in rebinding, it was laid down as an endpaper inside the back cover, presumably on the evidence of leather stains that are no longer visible.
See also folio 18 recto (D04012), which also has a pen study of figures dancing, related to the subject of the watercolour Caernarvon Castle, North Wales, exhibited in at the Royal Academy in 1800 (Tate D04164; Turner Bequest LXX M).2 Another study of dancers and a harpist is on folio 86 verso (D04100).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
See Finberg 1909, I, p.172.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.329 no.263, pl.52.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Group of Figures, with Some Reclining, and Others Dancing to a Harpist 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-group-of-figures-with-some-reclining-and-others-dancing-to-r1178032, accessed 21 September 2024.