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 c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 44 Recto:
?A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or Figures c.1834–6
D28849
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 44
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘44’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 44’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, within what seems to be the dark space framed by swirling bed curtains (as on many adjacent pages) there may be a figure, or figures embracing; the setting is so elemental and lightly indicated that it could also suggest a wood or cave.
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Curtained Bed, with a Figure or 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-curtained-bed-with-a-figure-or-figures-r1149071, accessed 18 April 2024.