drawing
- Museum number
- 1937,0213.41
- Description
-
Landscape sketch, after Turner; rough sketch of Turner's 'Apullia in search of Appullus'; composition divided centre right by a large clump of leafy trees; in the middle distance l, a bridge with round low arches; a group of figures in left foreground. 1814(?)
Graphite
- Production date
- 1814 (?)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 84 millimetres
-
Width: 127 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- A copy of the painting Turner exhibited at the British Institution in 1814, in competition for a premium to promote British art. The fact that Turner submitted a work which was heavily indebted to Claude has been interpreted as an ironic reflection of the strategies of the Directors of the British Institution. Specifically, the work is derived from the famous Claude in the collection of the Earl of Egremont, 'Jacob and the daughters of Laban'. A print after Turner's painting was made for the Liber Studiorum, but never published. Cotman's drawing must therefore have been made from the painting itself, which was not publicly exhibited after its showing in 1814. The fact that Cotman should have shown an interest in such a classicising image at a time when he was concentrating all his energies on his antiquarian printmaking in Norfolk is evidence of the breadth of his interests, with his own ambitions to succeed in the field of landscape painting never far from the surface (see Forrester, pp.133.4).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1937
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1937,0213.41