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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Nude Studies and Erotica c.1805-24 > Academy Auditing Sketchbook [Finberg ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Naked Figures Wrestling or Engaged in Sexual Activity c.1810

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Naked Figures Wrestling or Engaged in Sexual Activity’ c.1810
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 40 Recto:
Naked Figures Wrestling or Engaged in Sexual Activity circa 1810
D18519
Turner Bequest CCX a 38
Pencil on white laid writing paper, 115 x 187 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘38’ bottom right (now very faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCX(a) – 38’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As discussed in the introduction, most of the drawings in this book are rapid figure studies, many of which are explicitly erotic; others may be similar in intent, but are difficult to make out, and may be of classical or biblical subjects. Here the figures may be wrestling or embracing, fortuitous prefiguring of one of Francis Bacon’s recurring ambivalent motifs, as seen in the central panel of his Triptych – August 1972 (Tate T03073).
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
January 2012

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Naked Figures Wrestling or Engaged in Sexual Activity c.1810 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-naked-figures-wrestling-or-engaged-in-sexual-activity-r1184390, accessed 24 April 2024.