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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Fonthill Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Men Asleep under a Fallen Tree near Water, with Swans Fighting ?1799

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Men Asleep under a Fallen Tree near Water, with Swans Fighting’ ?1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Men Asleep under a Fallen Tree near Water, with Swans Fighting ?1799
D02197
Turner Bequest XLVII 20
Pencil on white wove paper, 337 x 471 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLVII 20’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the page turned horizontally, this study of some of the workmen engaged in the construction of William Beckford’s house at Fonthill illustrates Turner’s interest in the human implications of the topographical subjects he was asked to record. He made a further study including resting men and swans on D02191 (Turner Bequest XLVII 14). There is a small drawing of two birds above the group of swans; this appears to be an unrelated study of swans in flight.
Studies of swans also occur in the Swans sketchbook, which Turner was using at Fonthill in 1799 (Tate D01689, D01690; Turner Bequest XLVII 14, 15).
Technical notes:
For a proposed sequence for the leaves of the disbound Fonthill sketchbook, with this page as folio 6, see the Introduction.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Men Asleep under a Fallen Tree near Water, with Swans Fighting ?1799 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-men-asleep-under-a-fallen-tree-near-water-with-swans-r1174222, accessed 17 July 2024.