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 Naked Figure or Figures c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Curtained Bed, with a Naked Figure or Figures’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
A Curtained Bed, with a Naked Figure or Figures c.1834–6
D28796
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 6
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 6’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There is a suggestion of bed curtains towards the left, with a pale figure or figures reclining towards the right within the dark space beyond, but the composition has hardly been developed beyond the rapid initial washes.
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.
Verso:
Blank, save for apparently adventitious stroke of blue watercolour and offsetting from folio 7 recto opposite (D28797).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Curtained Bed, with a Naked 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-naked-figure-or-figures-r1149026, accessed 07 July 2024.