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 'The Army of the Medes Destroyed in the Desert by a Whirlwind' c.1799-1801

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study for 'The Army of the Medes Destroyed in the Desert by a Whirlwind'’ c.1799-1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 84 Recto:
Study for ‘The Army of the Medes Destroyed in the Desert by a Whirlwind’ c.1799–1801
D05067
Turner Bequest LXXXI 165
Pencil and white chalk on blue laid paper, 271 x 436 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Whirlwind’ towards top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–165’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner exhibited his now untraced painting The Army of the Medes Destroyed in the Desart by a whirlwind at the Royal Academy in 1801.1 In a subtitle as printed in the catalogue he cited ‘Jeremiah, chap. xv. Ver 32, and 33’ as his source, that is to say chapter 15; Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll point out that he probably intended chapter 25.2 This study of a confused mass of figures, made with the page turned horizontally, seems to refer back to the example of Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), as do some of the some of the pen and ink figure studies in this sketchbook.
Other studies apparently for the picture are on folios 82 recto and 83 recto (D05063, D05065; Turner Bequest LXXXI 161, 163); see also drawings in the Dynevor Castle sketchbook (Tate D01562–D01563, D01566–D01567; Turner Bequest XL 58a–59, 60a–61). Writing of D05065, Finberg suggested a connection3 with the painting of The Deluge of about 1805 (Tate N00493);4 the present drawing is equally suggestive of a disaster at sea, with what appear to be the hulls of ships tossed on stormy waters, and figures drowning. In practice, as many drawings in this book show, Turner’s subjects were often interchangeable.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.13–15 no.15.
2
See ibid., p.14.
3
See Finberg 1909, I, p.218.
4
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.43–4 no.55, pl.65 (colour).

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Study for ‘The Army of the Medes Destroyed in the Desert by a Whirlwind’ c.1799–1801 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-the-army-of-the-medes-destroyed-in-the-desert-by-a-r1178271, accessed 20 September 2024.