This sheet is a white wove paper made using a double-faced mould. There is no watermark but Bower believes the maker is probably Whatman. The sheet has been hot pressed and very heavily sized.
1 The bottom and top edges have been very unevenly cut and there is a considerable amount of surface dirt on both the recto and verso. In places the chalk has been abraded and some has been lost.
This is an early drawing in black chalk completed by Turner when he was a teenaged student at the Royal Academy. The drawing is tentative and has none of the fluidity of later works.
Helen Evans
August 2009
Revised by Joyce Townsend
February 2011
How to cite
Helen Evans, 'Technique and Condition', August 2009, revised by Joyce Townsend, February 2011, in Andrew Wilton, ‘Study of the Vatican Meleager ?1792 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-vatican-meleager-r1140256, accessed 24 November 2024.