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 Dark Interior or Curtained Bed c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 27 Recto:
?A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed c.1834–6
D28822
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 27
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘27’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 27’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This loosely washed page shows little sign of development towards a legible composition, but it could have been the starting point for a curtained bed with a shadowy interior, as seen on more worked-up adjacent pages.
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed 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-dark-interior-or-curtained-bed-r1149051, accessed 25 April 2024.