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, with Figures c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Dark Interior, with Figures’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Recto:
?A Dark Interior, with Figures c.1834–6
D28824
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 28
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘28’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 28’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Worked in very loose washes, what seem to be two figures, one silhouetted and one pale, probably women in long dresses, appear to move towards the left in a dark space. Pale washes on the right possibly indicate another figure reaching after them, but this is open to speculation.
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, 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-dark-interior-with-figures-r1149053, accessed 19 September 2024.