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

There is a drawing of a nude woman on folio 1 verso (D22324), under which other figure studies in this sketchbook are noted, but the sketch here is altogether less legible. It may show a couple engaged in sexual activity, with only the immediate focus of interest drawn in any detail; compare the similar approach in a slight but unambiguous erotic subject in the Finance sketchbook (Tate D08342; Turner Bequest CXXII 37).

Whether Finberg discerned a subject or not, he called this a ‘Slight sketch’, and it has not been discussed by Ian Warrell among other figure studies in this sketchbook.1

Technical notes:

Turner wrote ‘Wroxall’ at the bottom right of the recto (D22325), but the corner was creased diagonally at the time with a small triangular portion of the present page thus overlapping the recto, and the last ‘l’ strayed across the edge. Ruskin’s customary red ink number was also written while the corner was folded. The leaf was straightened out before the Turner Bequest number was stamped in the usual place at the bottom right of the recto, leaving Turner’s ‘l’ and Ruskin’s ‘2’ isolated at the bottom left here.