Between the Sheets: Turner’s Nudes – a ‘perfect peep-show of a show’
Exhibition offers ‘tantalising glimpses’ into the personal life of one of our greatest painters

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) is best remembered as “a genius landscape painter”, said Mark Brown in The Guardian. We revere him for his “turbulent” maritime scenes, his dramatic skies and his radical visions of the English countryside coming into contact with industrialisation.
It is rare that we ever think about his private life, much less his sex life. Yet Turner was a compulsive draughtsman, recording almost everything he saw around him; his romantic encounters were no exception.
Now a new exhibition, held in a bedroom at Turner’s House in Twickenham, is displaying “rarely seen erotic watercolour drawings” made over the course of his long career. The exhibition brings together ten works on paper, some drawn from life classes, others displaying “more erotic, intimate bedroom scenes”; one apparently depicts Sophia Booth, Turner’s lover. The show offers “tantalising glimpses” into the personal life of one of our greatest painters.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
These drawings are “a world away” from emblematic Turner works such as The Fighting Temeraire (1839) or Rain, Steam and Speed (1844), said Lucy Davies in The Daily Telegraph. There are some interesting curios here: one “graphic study of couples during sex” highlights Turner’s interest in “classically inspired erotica”, a fashionable genre at the time. Elsewhere, even the more formal studies of nudes convey the artist’s evident “delight in the female form”.
Yet there is no escaping the artist’s “ineptitude when it comes to bodies”: the figures in these throwaway sketches are almost invariably “crudely done”. The “most satisfying moments” are to be found in depictions of interior details: “canopies, plump pillows, ruffled coverlets and ornate chairs”.
The “famously prudish” critic John Ruskin is said to have burned many of Turner’s erotic sketches, believing they displayed “a failure of mind” on the part of the artist. In a sense, Ruskin had a point. This show is “not an exhibition of masterpieces”.
It hardly matters, said Laura Freeman in The Times. This is a “perfect peep-show of a show”. Each sketch here is “intimate and inviting”, the mood “tender rather than lewd”. A graphite and watercolour drawing from Turner’s Swiss Figures sketchbook (1802) depicting a “two-in-a-bed romp” is mysterious; indeed, it’s difficult to distinguish the sex of the figures it portrays, though “the Swiss dirndl dropped on the floor is unmistakeable”.
More interesting still are a “seductive” group of “loose and languorous” nudes, drawn so faintly that they are “barely there”. Small though it is, Between the Sheets explores its subject “with aplomb”.
Turner’s House, Twickenham TW1 (turnershouse.org). Until 30 October
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - April 20, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - Pam Bondi, retirement planning, and more
By The Week US
-
5 heavy-handed cartoons about ICE and deportation
Cartoons Artists take on international students, the Supreme Court, and more
By The Week US
-
Exploring the three great gardens of Japan
The Week Recommends Beautiful gardens are 'the stuff of Japanese landscape legends'
By The Week UK
-
Exploring the three great gardens of Japan
The Week Recommends Beautiful gardens are 'the stuff of Japanese landscape legends'
By The Week UK
-
One-pan black chickpeas with baharat and orange recipe
The Week Recommends This one-pan dish offers bold flavours, low effort and minimum clean up
By The Week UK
-
G20: Viola Davis stars in 'ludicrous' but fun action thriller
The Week Recommends The award-winning actress plays the 'swashbuckling American president' in this newly released Prime Video film
By The Week UK
-
6 must-see homes in Boston
Feature Featuring a factory-turned-loft in South Boston and a wraparound roof deck in South End
By The Week US
-
Cartier at the V&A: a 'dazzling' show
The Week Recommends A 'once-in-a-lifetime' display of the French jeweller's 'exquisite' objects
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK
-
What is Free Speech?: a 'meticulous' look at the evolution of freedom of expression
The Week Recommends Fara Dabhoiwala provides both history and critique while 'correcting misconceptions'
By The Week UK
-
Rupert Gavin shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The theatre impresario picks works by Dan Jones, Annie Ernaux and Floella Benjamin
By The Week UK
-
What They Found: Sam Mendes's powerful debut documentary
The Week Recommends The Oscar-winning director's harrowing film features footage and first-hand accounts of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
By The Week UK