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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Nude Studies and Erotica c.1830-40 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Reclining Nude Woman with a Male Companion c.1833-40

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Reclining Nude Woman with a Male Companion’ c.1833-40
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Reclining Nude Woman with a Male Companion c.1833–40
D34917
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 422
Pencil on white wove paper, 89 x 183 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram at centre
Inscribed in an unknown hand ‘[B...] Basel | L[...] | und O[...]’ towards top right
Inscribed in red ink ‘422’ bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCCXLIV’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLIV 422’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
At second glance, it becomes clear that the clearly defined nude woman reclining with her leg drawn up is not alone, and that she and a male companion are engaged in sexual activity. Ian Warrell has described the subject as ‘little more than a day dream’, comparing the perfunctory, focused anatomical treatment to the subsidiary study in the rather earlier Tate D40020 (Turner Bequest CCCLXV A).1 Compare also Tate D08342 (Turner Bequest CXXII 37) in the Finance sketchbook and Tate D27447 (Turner Bequest CCLXXIX a 45a) in the Life Class (1) book.
Warrell suggests that the present drawing, on a rough scrap of coarse paper likely manufactured in the late 1820s (see the technical notes), was perhaps made during one of Turner’s Continental tours between 1833 and 1840, accounting for the German inscription in another hand mentioning Basel in Switzerland.2
1
Warrell 2003, p.26.
2
See ibid.
Technical notes:
There are two parallel vertical creases. Ian Warrell has noted that the paper was made by Bally, Ellen and Steart,1 coming from a batch which paper conservator Peter Bower suggests as watermarked 1827 or 1829.2
1
Referenced extensively in Peter Bower, Turner’s Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of his Drawing Papers 1820–1851, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999.
2
Ibid.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘pfo no 95’ centre left.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Reclining Nude Woman with a Male Companion c.1833–40 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-reclining-nude-woman-with-a-male-companion-r1184329, accessed 21 November 2024.