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 Figures c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with Figures’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Recto:
?A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with Figures c.1834–6
D28809
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 18
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘18’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 18’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The very loosely defined shapes in the shadows on the right appear to be figures embracing within a curtained bed.
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 very slight offsetting of watercolour from folio 19 recto opposite (D28810).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with Figures 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-figures-r1149039, accessed 24 April 2024.