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 a Figure or Figures under the Covers c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures under the Covers’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 37 Verso:
A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures under the Covers c.1834–6
D28838
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 37
Watercolour on white wove paper, 101 x 77 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, the scene appears to be the interior of a curtained bed, with a figure or figures under tumbling bedclothes. There seems to be a head towards the right and perhaps the back of another to its left, while a foot may be indicated towards the bottom left.
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.
The unaccessioned recto is inscribed in red ink ‘37’ and stamped ‘CCXCI(b) – 37’, and is blank save for slight offsetting of adventitious watercolour to or from folio 36 verso opposite (itself unaccessioned, the recto being D28837).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures under the Covers 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-a-figure-or-figures-under-the-covers-r1149064, accessed 19 April 2024.