J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

As discussed in the introduction, most of the drawings in this book are rapid figure studies, many of which are openly erotic; others may be similar in intent, but are difficult to make out, as here, where a man appears to draw a partly reclining woman towards him while a fragmentary figure looks on. Reading the composition as one figure supporting another and casting around for a more ‘legitimate’ subject among the explicit sketches, Finberg tentatively suggested ‘The Good Samaritan’, referring to Christ’s parable of the traveller who stops to help a wounded man.1

Technical notes:

A subsequent leaf had been ‘cut out’1 by Finberg’s time. Whether it comprised figure studies of the sort filling the rest of the book is not recorded. As described in the introduction to the sketchbook, the leaf has since been made good with similar laid paper.

Verso:

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