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 or Bedroom, Perhaps with Figures c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Curtained Bed or Bedroom, Perhaps with Figures’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
?A Curtained Bed or Bedroom, Perhaps with Figures c.1834–6
D28797
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 7
Watercolour on white wove paper, 101 x 77 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘7’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 7’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This very loose composition suggests a flurry of activity at the centre, possibly with figures in a curtained bed as in other studies in this sketchbook, but this may be reading too much into the rapid, exploratory marks. The page was reproduced vertically without further comment in Ian Warrell’s detailed survey of this sketchbook,1 but might potentially have developed as a horizontal composition with the bed curtains represented by the reddish strokes parallel with the gutter.
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.
1
Warrell 2003, pl.47.
Verso:
Blank, save for offsetting and very slight continuation of watercolour from folio 8 recto opposite (D28798).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Curtained Bed or Bedroom, Perhaps with Figures 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-or-bedroom-perhaps-with-figures-r1149027, accessed 15 May 2024.