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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Women, Possibly Fishwives or Tradeswomen ?1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Verso:
Two Women, Possibly Fishwives or Tradeswomen ?1827
D20779
Turner Bequest CCXXVII 30
Pencil on white wove paper, 185 x 110 mm
Partial watermark ‘nsell | 17’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the page turned vertically, this study of two similar women (or the same figure in successive attitudes) with elaborate headgear, calf-length skirts and perhaps aprons, may show fishwives or other tradeswomen, observed at Portsmouth, perhaps among the crowd shown on folio 23 verso (D20768; Turner Bequest CCXXVII 23) or on the Isle of Wight (see under folio 2 recto; D20735).
As discussed in the technical notes in the sketchbook’s introduction, this leaf’s blank recto does not have a Tate ‘D’ accession number. It was prepared with a grey wash, and is inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘30’ and stamped in black ‘CCXXVII – 30’ at the bottom right.
Technical notes:
There is some watercolour offsetting from the grey ground used on folio 32 recto opposite (the verso of which is D20781; Turner Bequest CCXXVII 31).

Matthew Imms
November 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Two Women, Possibly Fishwives or Tradeswomen ?1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-two-women-possibly-fishwives-or-tradeswomen-r1182641, accessed 28 March 2024.