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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Milan to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Men, Women, a Horse and Cart and a Donkey; an Italian Town with a Tall Tower; a Town with Distant Mountains 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Men, Women, a Horse and Cart and a Donkey; an Italian Town with a Tall Tower; a Town with Distant Mountains’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Verso:
Studies of Men, Women, a Horse and Cart and a Donkey; an Italian Town with a Tall Tower; a Town with Distant Mountains 1819
D14360
Turner Bequest CLXXV 23a
Pencil on white wove paper, 185 x 112 mm
Partial watermark ‘Al | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘S[...]d[...]’ top left, ‘Green’ top centre, ‘Blue’ top right, ‘Red [...]’ towards top left, ‘[...] | Red | Yellow’ towards top centre, ‘[...] | M[...] Red G[...]’ towards top right, ‘Blue’ centre left and ‘G[...] | R[...] centre right, on and around figures, ‘Road’ below centre, and ‘[?clouds]’ towards bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, the upper half is taken up with swift but characterful sketches of men and women about their everyday business, as well as a passing horse and small passenger cart and a heavily laden donkey. The figure studies on folio 22 verso (D14358) were perhaps made on the same occasion; for others in this sketchbook, see under folio 18 verso (D14351).
Below, separated by horizontal pencil lines, are two studies of towns; both may be labelled with their place names, but the scrawled words are effectively illegible beyond the carful ‘R’ in the first instance, beside a high tower. Assuming the sketch was made in sequence, the artist was probably not far west of Verona at this stage (see under folio 25 recto; D14363).

Matthew Imms
March 2017

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Studies of Men, Women, a Horse and Cart and a Donkey; an Italian Town with a Tall Tower; a Town with Distant Mountains 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-studies-of-men-women-a-horse-and-cart-and-a-donkey-an-r1186473, accessed 24 April 2024.