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 ?An Interior c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?An Interior’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 45 Recto:
?An Interior c.1834–6
D28851
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 45
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘45’ bottom right (smudged)
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 45’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The washes here are so perfunctory that it is difficult to read a subject into them, although they may be the beginnings of a shadowy interior like so many others in this sketchbook. The entwined legs faintly visible at the centre are showing through from the ink outlines on the verso (D28852).
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, ‘?An Interior 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-an-interior-r1149073, accessed 27 April 2024.