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 > Calais Pier Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Male Nude, Half-Kneeling, Seen from Behind c.1799-1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Male Nude, Half-Kneeling, Seen from Behind’ c.1799-1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
A Male Nude, Half–Kneeling, Seen from Behind c.1799–1805
D04910
Turner Bequest LXXXI 9
Black and white chalks on blue laid paper, 436 x 271 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and ‘VI’
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–9’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of a series of academy studies from the nude model in this book, and was presumably drawn from a pose at the Royal Academy’s Life School. A male nude in a very similar attitude occurs in a study by Thomas Stothard (1755–1834) in the Royal Academy collection (RA 05/3123), and another of Stothard’s studies seems to show the same model and pose from a different viewpoint (RA 3091). Stothard was a visitor to the Schools in 1799, 1800, 1803 and 1804; see also folio 8 recto (D04916; Turner Bequest LXXXI 15).
There is a possibility that Turner referred to this drawing when developing the pose of Jason in his 1802 mythological painting of that name (Tate N00471);1 see also folios 1 recto and 4 recto (D04902, D04908; Turner Bequest LXXXI 1, 7).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.18 no.19, pl.15.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Male Nude, Half–Kneeling, Seen from Behind c.1799–1805 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-male-nude-half-kneeling-seen-from-behind-r1178114, accessed 25 April 2024.