J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 40 Recto:
A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures c.1834–6
D28843
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 40
Watercolour on white wove paper, 101 x 77 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘40’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 40’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, the loosely worked setting seems to be a dark interior or a curtained bed, with pale shapes below suggesting a figure or figures within. The blue strokes at the top appear to indicate the bed curtains; compare the similar effect on folio 39 verso opposite (D28841).
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.
Verso:
Blank, save for slight offsetting of watercolour to or from folio 41 recto opposite (unaccessioned; the verso is D28844).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with a Figure or 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-or-curtained-bed-with-a-figure-or-figures-r1149067, accessed 29 March 2024.