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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Erotica and Improvisations c.1834-6 > Colour Studies (1) Sketchbook [Finberg ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Curtained Bed, with the Naked Legs of a Reclining Woman c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Curtained Bed, with the Naked Legs of a Reclining Woman’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
A Curtained Bed, with the Naked Legs of a Reclining Woman c.1834–6
D28795
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 5
Watercolour and chalk on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘5’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 5’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The pale shapes revealed here beyond the red bed curtains1 appear to be the naked lower legs of a woman, drawn up with the knees parted and the ankles crossed; their contours are lightly emphasised in red, but the rest of the figure is undefined.
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.
1
See Rosenberg 2007, pp.117, 327 note 22.
Verso:
Blank, save for offsetting of watercolour from folio 6 recto opposite (D28796).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Curtained Bed, with the Naked Legs of a Reclining Woman c.1834–6 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2014, 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-a-curtained-bed-with-the-naked-legs-of-a-reclining-woman-r1149025, accessed 18 April 2024.