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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Royal Academy c.1789-99 > Studies from the Antique and Other ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of the Apollo Belvedere ?1792-3

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study of the Apollo Belvedere’ ?1792-3
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Study of the Apollo Belvedere ?1792–3
D00058
Turner Bequest V E
Black chalk and stump on off-white wove paper, 473 x 314 mm
Stamped in black ‘V E’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Finberg points out, this study is unfinished, although the tonal modelling is highly developed, with the figure illuminated against a shadowed background.
For the Apollo Belvedere see principally, in this group of studies, Tate D00056 (Turner Bequest V C), which also depicts the figure whole-length. Other studies of the Apollo in this group are Tate D00057 and D40218 (Turner Bequest V D, O [verso]).
Technical notes:
The paper is off-white wove, attributed by Finberg to Whatman. Peter Bower, however, considers Edmeads and Pine of Ivy Mill, near Maidstone, a more likely maker.1 It was possibly manufactured as a drawing paper during the firm’s experiments with such papers in the last years of the eighteenth century. The sheet was formerly laid down on modern white cartridge paper. There is a horizontal fold across the centre and the lower right corner has been torn away.
1
Note in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank; black chalk trials.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Study of the Apollo Belvedere ?1792–3 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-study-of-the-apollo-belvedere-r1140263, accessed 21 November 2024.