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 ?A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with a Woman and Another Figure c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with a Woman and Another Figure’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Recto:
?A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with a Woman and Another Figure c.1834–6
D28815
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 23
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘23’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 23’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The setting appears to be a curtained bed, with the pale profile and upper body of a woman at the centre; there may be another figure in the shadows to the left, with his or her arms raised behind the head.
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 24 recto (unaccessioned; the recto of D28816).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with a Woman and Another Figure 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-woman-and-another-r1149045, accessed 26 April 2024.