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 Figures ?Embracing c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Curtained Bed, with Figures ?Embracing’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto:
A Curtained Bed, with Figures ?Embracing c.1834–6
D28811
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 20
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘20’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 20’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Within a shadowy curtained bed, the pale forms emphasised by dark strokes outlining them appear to be figures embracing.
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 very slight offsetting of watercolour from folio 21 recto opposite (D28812).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Curtained Bed, with Figures ?Embracing 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-figures-embracing-r1149041, accessed 24 April 2024.