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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Liber Studiorum notes c.1807-19 > Finance Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Head and Front Quarters of a Cow c.1807-14

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Head and Front Quarters of a Cow’ c.1807-14
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
The Head and Front Quarters of a Cow c.1807–14
D08293
Turner Bequest CXXII 7
Pencil on white wove paper, 69 x 112 mm
Part watermark ‘E & | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘7’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXII – 7’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The cow is seen in detail from its left side, and was presumably sketched from close up, filling the page. There are further cattle sketches on folio 6 recto (D08291). Ian Warrell has remarked upon the ‘remarkable frequency’ of such studies in Turner’s early sketchbooks.1

Matthew Imms
September 2013

1
Ian Warrell in Warrell, Blandine Chavanne and Michael Kitson, Turner et le Lorrain, exhibition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy 2002, p.186, listing numerous examples.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Head and Front Quarters of a Cow c.1807–14 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-head-and-front-quarters-of-a-cow-r1147769, accessed 17 July 2024.