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 ?Lot and his Family Fleeing from Sodom c.1799-1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Lot and his Family Fleeing from Sodom’ c.1799-1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Verso:
?Lot and his Family Fleeing from Sodom c.1799–1805
D04931
Turner Bequest LXXXI 30
Black chalk on blue laid paper, 271 x 436 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and Strasburg lily
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–30’ bottom right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This rapid and almost unintelligible sketch, made with the page turned horizontally, apparently shows the same group of fleeing figures that occurs on folio 14 recto (D04928; Turner Bequest LXXXI 27) and, less certainly, on the recto of this leaf (D04930; Turner Bequest LXXXI 29). They probably relate to the painting of The Destruction of Sodom that Turner possibly showed in his own gallery in 1805 (Tate N00474);1 see also under folio 3 recto (D04906; Turner Bequest LXXXI 5).
Finberg suggested that the drawing depicts ‘Shadrach, &c., in fiery furnace’,2 a Biblical subject that Turner did not otherwise treat at this time, but tackled much later, when in 1832 he sent the painting Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego in the Burning Fiery Furnace to the Royal Academy (Tate N00517).3
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.
2
Finberg 1909, I, p.214.
3
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.197–8 no.346, pl.348 (colour).
Technical notes:
At some stage the leaf was detached and folded in half; see the technical notes for the recto (D04930; Turner Bequest LXXXI 29).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘?Lot and his Family Fleeing from Sodom 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-lot-and-his-family-fleeing-from-sodom-r1178135, accessed 25 April 2024.