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 > Return from Italy Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Figure Sketches, Savoy 1820

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Figure Sketches, Savoy’ 1820
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Recto:
Figure Sketches, Savoy 1820
D16675
Turner Bequest CXCII 18
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 128 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Blue’ top left, ‘Red | Cap Cl[...]s | like Frills | Sayoard’ top centre, ‘Sa’ and ‘White’ top right. Also ‘Blue and Red | Buttons, Postillion’, ‘Badger hair | over the Nose and | [?around] Mouth’ bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘18’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CXCII 18’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains several studies of figures which Turner has annotated with notes concerning the colour and appearance of their clothes. These include some ‘Savoyard’ women at the top (i.e. natives of Savoy), and a ‘postillion’, a rider at the front of a team of horses pulling a coach or diligence (bottom left). In addition to the rider Turner has made a quick sketch of the head of a horse and has noted that its bridle is adorned with ‘Badger hair’.
There are a number of similar groups of sketches within this sketchbook, see for example folio 13 (D16665).

Nicola Moorby
April 2013

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Figure Sketches, Savoy 1820 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-figure-sketches-savoy-r1142574, accessed 20 December 2024.