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 Supine Male Nude, Seen Foreshortened c.1799-1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Supine Male Nude, Seen Foreshortened’ c.1799-1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Recto:
A Supine Male Nude, Seen Foreshortened c.1799–1805
D04924
Turner Bequest LXXXI 23
Black and white chalks on blue laid paper, 271 x 436 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and ‘VI’
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–23’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the page turned horizontally, this is a slight outline study of the same figure as on folio 11 recto (D04922; Turner Bequest LXXXI 21); and see also folio 16 recto (D04932; Turner Bequest LXXXI 31). Turner may have derived the idea of this pose from a similar figure in a painting by Richard Wilson (1713–1782), The Destruction of the Children of Niobe (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven), exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1760. It was well–known through an engraving by William Woollett, published by John Boydell in 1761.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Supine Male Nude, Seen Foreshortened 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-supine-male-nude-seen-foreshortened-r1178128, accessed 23 April 2024.