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 ?The Back of a Reclining Nude in Shadow c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?The Back of a Reclining Nude in Shadow’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Recto:
?The Back of a Reclining Nude in Shadow c.1834–6
D28826
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 29
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘29’ bottom right (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 29’ bottom right
 
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, with the right arm reaching towards the knee in the shadows; read this way, the forms suggest a female model, but this is somewhat open to interpretation. There is something of the same sculptural sense of form emerging from shadow in the study on folio 28 verso opposite (D28825).
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, ‘?The Back of a Reclining Nude 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-the-back-of-a-reclining-nude-in-shadow-r1149055, accessed 18 April 2024.