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 Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with Naked Figures ?Embracing c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with Naked Figures ?Embracing’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with Naked Figures ?Embracing c.1834–6
D28813
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 22
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘22’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 22’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Within a dark room or perhaps a curtained bed, there appears to be a pale flurry of naked limbs towards the right, suggesting an embracing couple.
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Dark Interior or Curtained Bed, with Naked Figures ?Embracing 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-dark-interior-or-curtained-bed-with-naked-figures-r1149043, accessed 24 November 2024.