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 Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures Reclining c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures Reclining’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Recto:
?A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures Reclining c.1834–6
D28806
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 15
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘15’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 15’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With bed curtains at the left,1 in the shadows beyond is the very rudimentary form of what appears to be a naked figure (or figures) reclining within.
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.
1
See Rosenberg 2007, pp.117, 327 note 22.
Verso:
Blank, save for offsetting of watercolour from folio 16 recto opposite (D28807).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures Reclining 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-figure-or-figures-reclining-r1149036, accessed 23 April 2024.