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 17 Recto:
A Curtained Bed, ?with a Figure or Figures Reclining c.1834–6
D28808
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 17
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘17’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 17’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In the dark space between bed curtains,1 pale forms appear to evoke a naked figure or figures reclining or embracing.
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 very slight continuation of watercolour from folio 18 recto opposite (D28809).

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-r1149038, accessed 23 April 2024.