Monday, December 4, 2017

18th-century Figure Drawing from Antique Casts

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Study of the Apollo Belvedere (cast)
ca. 1792
drawing
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Study of the Apollo Belvedere (cast)
ca. 1792
drawing
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Study of the Apollo Belvedere (cast)
ca. 1792
drawing
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Study of the Apollo Belvedere (cast)
ca. 1792
drawing
Tate Britain

"Joseph Mallord William Turner was born, it is thought, on 23 April 1775 at 21 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, the son of William Turner (1745-1829), a barber and wig-maker, and his wife Mary, née Marshall (1739-1804).  . . .  In 1789, after a term's probation, Turner entered the Royal Academy Schools, where he progressed from the Plaister Academy, drawing from casts of ancient sculpture, to the life class . . ."

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Study of the Belvedere Hermes (cast)
ca. 1792
drawing
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Study of the Vatican Meleager (cast)
ca. 1792
drawing
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Study of the Vatican Discobolus (cast)
ca. 1792
drawing
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Study of the Jason (cast)
ca. 1792
drawing
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Study of the Borghese Gladiator (cast)
ca. 1792
drawing
Tate Britain

Joseph Highmore
Study of the Borghese Gladiator (cast) 
ca. 1712-15
drawing
Tate Britain

"Joseph Highmore (1692-1780) was born in London, the third son of Edward Highmore, a coal merchant, and nephew of Thomas Highmore, Serjeant Painter to William III.  He displayed early ability but was discouraged by his family from taking up art professionally, and began a legal training instead.  At the ending of a clerkship at the age of 17, however, he abandoned the law and started to work as a painter."

Joseph Highmore
Studies of the Belvedere Torso (cast)
ca. 1712-15
drawing
Tate Britain

Joseph Highmore
Studies of the Belvedere Torso (cast)
ca. 1712-15
drawing
Tate Britain

"The relatively unskilled and random nature of these studies suggest that they may have been executed by Highmore early in his career.  He is known to have devoted his leisure time to the study of geometry, perspective, architecture and anatomy from books even before enrolling in the Academy of Painting in Great Queen Street in 1713 . . . "

Joseph Highmore
Study of the Farnese Hercules (after reversed engraving) 
and other anatomical studies
ca. 1712-15
drawing
Tate Britain

Joseph Highmore
Study of the Farnese Hercules (cast)
ca. 1712-15
drawing
Tate Britain

 quoted passages based on notes by curators at Tate Britain