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 > Drawings from the Nude Model > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Standing Male Figure with Arms Supported in a Loop above his Head; a Landscape Beyond c.1796-7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Standing Male Figure with Arms Supported in a Loop above his Head; a Landscape Beyond’ c.1796-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Standing Male Figure with Arms Supported in a Loop above his Head; a Landscape Beyond c.1796–7
D00204
Turner Bequest XVIII I
Black and white chalks with stump on laid blue wrapping paper, laid down, 489 x 299 mm
Watermark: fleur de lys; arms of Strasbourg; ‘LVG’
Inscribed in red ink ‘XVIII.I’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XVIII I’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The loop of cloth or leather in which the figure has placed his wrist was commonly used in life schools to enable the model to maintain otherwise exhausting poses. It is possible that the figure in Tate D00202 (Turner Bequest XVIII G) was similarly assisted, though the loop is not drawn.
There is an offset of this drawing on Tate D00064 (Turner Bequest V L).
Technical notes:
Peter Bower1 explains the watermark as a combination of three continental marks, including that of Lubertus van Gerrevinck, which would have been used together on high quality papers; Gerrevinck’s mark was used later in the eighteenth century by English makers including James Whatman the elder. The presence of these marks here probably indicates that a mould discarded by another mill was being used.
1
TS note in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram; inscribed in pencil ‘6’.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Standing Male Figure with Arms Supported in a Loop above his Head; a Landscape Beyond c.1796–7 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-a-standing-male-figure-with-arms-supported-in-a-loop-above-r1140222, accessed 21 November 2024.