Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Head a Person Asleep
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
actions: processes and functions
adults
body
figure
head / face
people
sleeping
painting oil paint canvas
Head of a Person Asleep
support: 244 × 302 mm
frame: 289 × 342 × 37 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<p><b>452. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-head-of-a-person-asleep-n05494" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05494</span></a>]<b> Head of a Person asleep</b> <i>c</i>. 1835</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5494)</p>
<p>Canvas, 9 5/8 × 11 7/8 (24·5 × 30)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (? 273, 1 unidentified ‘,, 10 1/2" ×,,9 3/4"’, presumably meaning ‘0 ft 10 1/2 in by 0 ft 9 3/4 in’); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, p. 190.</p>
<p>Similar to two <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a> of head traditionally said to have been done from figures lying on the beach at Margate when Turner was staying there with Mrs Booth at some time between 1827 and 1846, when Mrs Booth moved to a house in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. The first is the <i>Head of a Fishwife lying in the Sun</i>, repr. <i>Connoisseur</i> lxix 1924, p. 137, formerly in the collection of Archibald G.B. Russell and with Roland, Browse and Delbanco in 1972. The other, sold at Sotheby's 10 March 1965 (36), now belongs to W. Wood Prince, Chicago. What is probably another version of the same story is John Pye's account of Turner <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> the head of a drowned girl at Chelsea (Falk 1938, p. 220). However, the oil head, with its relatively dark colouring, may be an indoor scene, reflecting the bedroom studies done at Petworth and elsewhere.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: processes and functions adults body figure head / face people sleeping