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 An Angel Flying or Running c.1799-1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘An Angel Flying or Running’ c.1799-1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 85 Recto:
An Angel Flying or Running c.1799–1805
D05069
Turner Bequest LXXXI 167
Pen and brown ink on blue laid paper, 271 x 436 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and Strasburg lily
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–167’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the page turned horizontally, this angel may have been envisaged as a component of the painting The Destruction of Sodom, probably shown at Turner’s gallery in 1805 (Tate N00474;1 see also under folio 3 recto; D04906; Turner Bequest LXXXI 5), or The Tenth Plague of Egypt, shown at the Royal Academy in 1802 (Tate N00470;2 see also folios 78 verso and 79 verso; D05056, D05058; Turner Bequest LXXXI 154, 156). The pose of the legs is repeated almost exactly in the fragment on folio 86 recto (D05071; Turner Bequest LXXXI 169).
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
Ibid., pp.16–17 no.17, pl.13 (colour).
Technical notes:
One leg has been partly cut out, and replaced with similar paper. The whole leaf was evidently previously detached and is much creased; about 25mm at the gutter has been replaced with modern blue paper. There is black chalk offsetting from folio 84 verso opposite (D05068; Turner Bequest LXXXI 166).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘An Angel Flying or Running 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-an-angel-flying-or-running-r1178273, accessed 20 September 2024.