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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > European River and Lowland Scenes > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Figures Working the Land c.1830

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Figures Working the Land’ c.1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Figures Working the Land c.1830
D25028
Turner Bequest CCLXI 56
Pencil and chalk on blue wove paper, 141 x 190 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCLXI 56’ bottom right
Inscribed in ink ‘56’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Several figures feature in this pencil sketch in which a flat plain of land stretches out to a low horizon. The figure towards the bottom left is the most detailed and distinguishable as a woman wearing rustic clothes, including what looks like a Dutch bonnet. The figure just left of centre is bending down. All of them appear to be working in these fields.
For the grouping and dating of these works, see the section Introduction.
Verso:
Blank except for inscriptions. Traces of white strips of paper along the edges of the sheet indicate an earlier mount. Inscribed in pencil ‘D25028’ towards bottom left. Inscribed in pencil ‘232 | O’ bottom right.

Ben Pollitt
August 2019

How to cite

Ben Pollitt, ‘Figures Working the Land c.1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-figures-working-the-land-r1202175, accessed 09 May 2024.