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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > Egyptian Details Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Studies: A Figure in Ancient Egyptian Costume; the Headdress c.1799-1800

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Studies: A Figure in Ancient Egyptian Costume; the Headdress’ c.1799-1800
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Recto:
Two Studies: A Figure in Ancient Egyptian Costume; the Headdress c.1799–1800
D03850
Turner Bequest LXVI 18
Pencil and ink on blue laid paper, 166 x 83 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Egyptains’ (sic) below right of centre under headdress study
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘18’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXVI – 18’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner worked on two paintings with Egyptian subjects in the years around 1800: The Fifth Plague of Egypt, exhibited in 1800 (BJ 13; Indianapolis Museum of Art),1 which actually depicts the Seventh Plague; and The Tenth Plague of Egypt, exhibited in 1802 (Tate N00470).2 Further studies of Egyptian artefacts and costumes are on folios 22 recto, 72 recto and verso, 73 recto, and 74 recto and verso (D03854, D03906–D03910). There are similar studies in the contemporary Studies for Pictures sketchbook (Tate D04074, D04076; Turner Bequest LXIX 65a, 66a). Turner does not in fact seem to have cited any of these specific details in those pictures.
Egyptian objects were still rare in England at the end of the eighteenth century; the beginning of Egyptian archaeology was stimulated by Napoleon’s abortive venture to the country in 1799. Turner most probably derived his images from books, such as Bernard de Montfaucon’s famous L’Antiquité expliquée et représententée en figures (15 volumes,1719–24), published in English from 1721.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.10–12 no.13, pl.10 (colour).
2
Ibid., pp.16–17 no.17, pl.13 (colour).
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Two Studies: A Figure in Ancient Egyptian Costume; the Headdress c.1799–1800 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-two-studies-a-figure-in-ancient-egyptian-costume-the-r1180089, accessed 21 November 2024.