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 Seated Nude from the Back, Possibly Embracing Another Figure in Shadow c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Seated Nude from the Back, Possibly Embracing Another Figure in Shadow’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Verso:
?A Seated Nude from the Back, Possibly Embracing Another Figure in Shadow c.1834–6
D28825
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 28a
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There seems to be a nude figure here, seated at the centre with its pale back to the viewer while its leg with the knee drawn up recedes to the right; it may represent be a woman, possibly embracing another figure in the hazy gloom, but this is all open to interpretation. There is something of the same sculptural sense of form emerging from shadow in the study on folio 29 recto opposite (D28826).
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 Seated Nude from the Back, Possibly Embracing Another Figure in Shadow 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-seated-nude-from-the-back-possibly-embracing-another-r1149054, accessed 26 April 2024.