Joseph Mallord William Turner

Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the bright form on the left may be a curtained bed, as in many other compositions in this book. In the dark to the right, there seems to be at least two shadowy figures. Either by a series of very light brushstrokes or by a fortuitous cluster of marks (or perhaps a combination of the two), there appears to be the pale form of a naked woman sitting on the bed. This reading becomes more convincing if she is the object of the others’ attention. The subject on folio 37 verso (D28936) may show a different aspect of such a scene; compare also the apparently voyeuristic subject on folio 32 verso (D28926).

For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.

Technical notes:

The unaccessioned, blank recto is numbered in red ink ‘38’ and stamped ‘CCXCI(c) – 38’; it bears slight watercolour offsetting from folio 37 verso (D28936).