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 > Route to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Figures at Imola 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Figures at Imola’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Verso:
Studies of Figures at Imola 1819
D13864
Turner Bequest CLXXI 3 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 88 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Blue’ and ‘Imola’ top left, and ‘9 Pilgrims | Blue | Baton | W Red’ within sketch, top right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The inscribed place name indicates that Turner sketched these six figure studies at Imola, a town approximately twenty miles south-east of Bologna which the artist passed en route towards Ancona. Landscape views of Imola can also be found on folios 17 verso and 19 verso (D13890 and D13894), as well as in the Venice to Ancona sketchbook (Tate D14555; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 33a).
Turner often recorded ethnic and native costumes which he observed during his European travels, for example see his description of women at Foligno on folio 20 verso (D13896). See also the Scotch Figures sketchbook (Tate, Turner Bequest LIX) and the Swiss Figures sketchbook (Tate, Turner Bequest LXXVIII). Amongst the group of men and women on this page is the figure of a pilgrim carrying a staff.

Nicola Moorby
March 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Studies of Figures at Imola 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-studies-of-figures-at-imola-r1138682, accessed 27 November 2024.