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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > Cowes Regatta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Figures in an Interior 1827

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Figures in an Interior’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
?Figures in an Interior 1827
D18000
Turner Bequest CCVII 6
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 100 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCVII – 6’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Like the drawing on folio 4 recto (D17997), this seems to represent a darkened interior, despite Finberg’s indicating that it represents ‘Shipping’.1 Although many of the adjacent pages do record such scenes in relation to regatta events at Cowes, here there appear to be at least two figures on the right with the tall form of what may be a curtained doorway or bed to the left. The subject may be obscurely erotic, as discussed in the entry for D17997, or connected with the apparently historical subject on folio 9 recto (D18005).

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.625.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Figures in an Interior 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-figures-in-an-interior-r1183488, accessed 21 November 2024.