Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies Made in the Louvre: Two Composition Studies Based on Claude; Figure Studies 1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 19 Verso:
Studies Made in the Louvre: Two Composition Studies Based on Claude; Figure Studies 1821
D24536
Turner Bequest CCLVIII 19a
Turner Bequest CCLVIII 19a
Pencil on white wove paper, 123 x 118 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Jan H[...]steane’ centre-left, ‘Prodigal Son’ centre, and ‘Mort Tasso’ bottom right
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Jan H[...]steane’ centre-left, ‘Prodigal Son’ centre, and ‘Mort Tasso’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1999
Turner on the Seine, Tate Gallery, London, June–October 1999, Pavillon des Arts, Paris, October 1999–January 2000, Musée Malraux, Le Havre, March–June 2000 (4).
2000
Pure as Italian Air: Turner and Claude Lorrain, Clore Gallery, Tate Britain, London, November 2000–April 2001.
2002
Turner et le Lorrain, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy, December 2002–March 2003 (53).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.786, CCLVIII 19a, as ‘Sketches of pictures – probably Claudes. – One the “Prodigal Son”; also groups of figures, one the “Mort de Tasso” (? Tessi).” ’.
1961
Alexander J. Finberg, The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Second Edition, Revised, with a Supplement, by Hilda F. Finberg, revised ed., Oxford 1961, p.271.
1965
Jerrold Ziff, ‘Copies of Claude’s Paintings in the Sketch Books of J.M.W. Turner’, Gazette des beaux-arts, vol.65, January 1965, p.129 ‘as copies of Claude’.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.113 under no.363.
1999
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, pp.21 fig.6, 22.
2001
Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann (eds.), The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 2001, p.205 [Paris, Louvre].
2002
Ian Warrell, Blandine Chavanne and Michael Kitson, Turner et le Lorrain, exhibition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy 2002, pp.179 no.53 reproduced, 195 under cats 64–71.
2009
David Solkin (ed.), Turner and the Masters, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2009, pp.54, 226 note 54, 221 under cats 90–92, 230 note 1.
Arriving in Paris as part of his 1821 tour of northern France, Turner took the opportunity to make his second visit to the Louvre. (He first visited the museum in 1802; see the Studies in the Louvre sketchbook: Tate D04275–D04390; D41518; Turner Bequest LXXII). While there he dedicated four pages of the present sketchbook to copies and variations of paintings, mainly by Claude Lorrain (1600–1682) whom he had omitted from his studies during his previous visit: further sketches are on folios 20, 32 verso and 34 (Tate D24537, D24561, D24564; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 19a, 20, 32a, 34). He also made sketches of the interior of the museum: folio 20 verso (Tate D24538; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 20a). On the recto of the present page is a sketch that may also be a variation of a painting seen by Turner in the museum (Tate D24535; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 19).
The present page contains two sketches in the compositional manner of Claude. At the top is a classical harbour scene, not identified as being based on any particular painting by the French artist, but designed in his manner. Ian Warrell has noted that the main building in this image utilises the columns recorded on D24538. The second sketch is a variation of Claude’s painting Landscape, with Samuel Anointing David, 1643 (Musée du Louvre), which Turner copied on the opposite sketchbook page (D24537). The distant setting, however, is based on a view down the Seine valley at Saint-Cloud which Turner visited during this journey: see folio 3 verso (Tate D24505; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 3a).1 The inscription ‘Prodigal Son’ may be the proposed title for this semi-original design.
Across the bottom half of the page there are three studies of groups of figures, perhaps taken from a painting. The top group includes at the centre a figure that appears to be anointing another crouched figure. The group at the bottom right of the page is labelled ‘Mort de Taffe’.
Thomas Ardill
February 2013
How to cite
Thomas Ardill, ‘Studies Made in the Louvre: Two Composition Studies Based on Claude; Figure Studies 1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www