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 a Figure or Figures c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 19 Recto:
A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures c.1834–6
D28810
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 19
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘19’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 19’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Within the shadowy curtained bed to the right are pale forms which may be a naked figure of figures, while in the left foreground the hatched blue shape may be intended as discarded clothes or perhaps a piece of decorated bedroom furniture.
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.
Verso:
Blank, save for slight offsetting of watercolour round the edges from folio 20 recto opposite (D28811).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or 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-with-a-figure-or-figures-r1149040, accessed 25 April 2024.