J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North Wales 1799-1801 > Dolbadarn Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Group of Figures in a Storm: Study for a Historical Composition 1799

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Group of Figures in a Storm: Study for a Historical Composition’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 83 Recto:
A Group of Figures in a Storm: Study for a Historical Composition 1799
D02120
Turner Bequest XLVI 83
Ink and wash on white wove paper, 79 x 130 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘83’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XLVI – 83’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Like other drawings in this book, this sketch, made with the page turned horizontally, no doubt relates to historical subjects Turner was mulling over at this time. The combination of figures with a violent storm suggests the Biblical subject of The Army of the Medes destroyed in the Desart by a Whirlwind1 which Turner exhibited in 1801; it is now lost, possibly painted over with another subject. Another possible subject is the destruction of Pharoah’s host in the Red Sea, which may be the subject of a separate sheet (Tate D08205; Turner Bequest CXIX R), although he is not known ever to have completed a picture on that theme.
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.
Verso:
Blank; washed with a very pale grey ground.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Group of Figures in a Storm: Study for a Historical Composition 1799 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-group-of-figures-in-a-storm-study-for-a-historical-r1179979, accessed 25 April 2024.