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 (2) Sketchbook [Finberg ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?A Curtained Bed with a Naked Woman c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Curtained Bed with a Naked Woman’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 19 Verso:
?A Curtained Bed with a Naked Woman c.1834–6
D28900
Turner Bequest CCXCI c 19
Watercolour on white wove paper, 79 x 101 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The slight wash compositions on adjacent versos generally appear to be inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, but in this case the dark area suggests the interior of a bed with a curtain hanging across at the top right. The pale shape at the left may be a naked woman sitting with her arms raised, as there seem to be one or two touches of grey defining her breasts, although this reading may be fortuitous.
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:
There is a slight continuation or offsetting of watercolour onto the unaccessioned recto of folio 20 (its verso being D28902). The unaccessioned, blank recto of the present leaf is numbered in red ink ‘19’ and stamped ‘CCXCI(c) – 19’; it has a little watercolour offsetting at the gutter from folio 18 verso opposite (D28898).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Curtained Bed with a Naked Woman 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-curtained-bed-with-a-naked-woman-r1148994, accessed 24 April 2024.