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 ?Study for a Picture with Figures and Architecture c.1799-1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Study for a Picture with Figures and Architecture’ c.1799-1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Recto:
?Study for a Picture with Figures and Architecture c.1799–1805
D04930
Turner Bequest LXXXI 29
Black and white chalks on blue laid paper, 271 x 436 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and Strasburg lily
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–29’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This very rough study, made on the left with the page turned horizontally, is difficult to decipher; the group is perhaps related to that on folio 14 recto (D04928; Turner Bequest LXXXI 27), and the page as a whole connected with the painting The Destruction of Sodom, possibly exhibited at Turner’s gallery in 1805 (Tate N00474).1
There is a possibly related study on folio 3 recto (D04906; Turner Bequest LXXXI 5) and another, even slighter, sketch of what appears to be the same subject on folio 15 verso (D04931; Turner Bequest LXXXI 30).
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.44 no.56, pl.66.
Technical notes:
At some stage the leaf was detached and folded in half, and the right side bears an offset from the left with the composition in reverse.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘?Study for a Picture with Figures and Architecture 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-study-for-a-picture-with-figures-and-architecture-r1178134, accessed 27 April 2024.