This faint drawing shows the profile of a woman with wavy hair or perhaps a mob cap interacting with a barely but unambiguously defined male partner. The recto is
D40020 (Turner Bequest CCCLXV A), where one of the erotic studies is equally rudimentary in its focus on the point of contact.
The main drawing occupies only the bottom right quadrant of the sheet, and is inverted relative to those on the recto. There are slight, unrelated pencil indications across the top half, possibly showing a landscape. It may be a rural Thames river scene with trees, buildings and boats, typical of the period around 1805 when Turner was based at Isleworth; see David Blayney Brown’s ‘Thames Sketchbooks c.1804–14’ section in this catalogue.
Whether by accident or design, this sheet is not listed in Finberg’s 1909
Inventory of the Turner Bequest,
1 nor is the drawing on this side mentioned in manuscript notes in copies use by earlier curators kept at Tate Britain. For further details, see under
D40020.
