Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A., a maquette

Details

William McMillan, R.A. (1887-1977)
Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A., a maquette
signed 'McMillan'
bronze, mid-brown patina
22 in. (55.9 cm.), high

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 24 May 1990, lot 602, where purchased by the present owner.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Sale room notice

The full-size plaster was exhibited at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1936 (N° 1589).
Also exhibited in 1936 was a ‘sketch model for statue of J.M.W. Turner R.A., quarter full size – bronze’ (N° 1563).
(Royal Academy exhibitors, 1905-1970; a dictionary of artists and their work in the summer exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts, Wakefield, 1973, Volume 5).
The sketch model is not known to have been cast as a bronze edition. It is probable therefore that the present lot is the only bronze example of the sketch model and is that shown at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1936.

A few minor alterations were made before the full-size statue was cast in bronze. The most obvious alteration being the removal of Turner’s pallet (to the finished full-size bronze Turner is shown only holding a cloth in his left hand).
(Annual Report from the Council of The Royal Academy to the General Assembly of Academicians for the Year 1936, 1937, p. 33)

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Lot Essay

The present lot is a maquette for the life-size statue of Turner at the Royal Academy, London, commissioned by the Leighton Fund (1896-1951) in 1936. On Leighton's death £10,000 was given to the Royal Academy, the interest of which was to be used for acquiring or commissioning works of Decorative Painting, Sculpture and Architecture to be located in public places.

The Royal Academy Annual Report of 1936 notes that the Council inspected the full-size model of the statue of Turner in McMillan’s studio in February and having suggested a few minor alterations they approved the work for completion. The plaster model was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1936.

The Scottish born sculptor McMillan first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1917, he was elected a full Academician in 1933, and in 1929 was appointed Master of the sculpture school at the Royal Academy. He was elected full member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1932. It was within a couple of years of this public recognition that McMillan began work on his statue of Turner. This piece was one of the first of a series of important public sculptures including: King George V (1938, Calcutta), Nereid and Triton with Dolphins (1948, Trafalgar Square), King George VI (1955, Carlton Gardens) and Sir Walter Raleigh (1959, Greenwich).

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