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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Nude Studies and Erotica c.1805-24 > Academy Auditing Sketchbook [Finberg ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?A Man Carrying a Woman on his Shoulder c.1810

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Man Carrying a Woman on his Shoulder’ c.1810
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
?A Man Carrying a Woman on his Shoulder circa 1810
D18501
Turner Bequest CCX a 20
Pencil on white laid writing paper, 115 x 187 mm
Part watermark ‘pps’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘20’ bottom right (now very faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCX(a) – 20’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As discussed in the introduction, most of the drawings in this book are rapid figure studies, many of which are explicitly erotic; others may be similar in intent, but are difficult to make out, and may be of classical or biblical subjects. This one appears to show a heavily muscled male figure in motion, carrying what is probably a female figure on his shoulder, perhaps evoking the ‘rape of the Sabine women’ episode from the legendary early history of Rome, or one of the amorous episodes related in Ovid’s Metamorphoses from the repertoire of the Old Masters.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
January 2012

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Man Carrying a Woman on his Shoulder c.1810 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-man-carrying-a-woman-on-his-shoulder-r1184372, accessed 10 May 2024.