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The artist J.M.W. Turner RA (1775-1851) is known for his expressive landscapes. But what is less well known is that Turner produced 150 erotic drawings and watercolours, executed over four decades, from 1802 to 1845 (when he was 70). 
Turner never married, but be travelled widely and was known to frequent brothels - there is evidence is bought a sketchbook from a brothel in Berne - and he is thought to have drawn many of these sketches from real life.
There are also sketches of Mrs Booth, Turner’s lover. She had been the artist’s landlady on his regular visits to Margate in Kent. They were lovers for 18yrs before he died. This was only discovered after his death & scandalised polite society. This study is thought to be her
When Turner died, all his sketches were left to the nation. Unfortunately, it was the notorious prude John Ruskin who was the executor of Turner’s estate & he was deeply traumatised by the erotic images he found.
The author Frank Harris reported a conversation he had with Ruskin, in which the critic described the works of art as "painting after painting of Turner's of the most shameful sort - the pudenda of women - utterly inexcusable and to me inexplicable."
Ruskin was so shocked that he decided it would be best to burn the images.
Ruskin wrote to Ralph Wornum, the then Keeper of the National Gallery, asking him to burn them: “I am satisfied that you had no other course than to burn them, for the sake of Turner’s reputation (they having been assuredly drawn under a certain condition of insanity)...
..and I hereby declare that the parcel of them was undone by me, and all the obscene drawings it contained burnt in my presence in the month of December, 1858.”
Ruskin claimed that he spared only one bundle which he wrapped in brown paper and neatly labelled "kept as evidence of a failure of mind only".
*Plot Twist* Until 2003, this was the accepted version of events. But then Ian Warrell, Turner expert at the Tate, set about researching Ruskin’s claims images. Warrell poured over the surviving images & tens of thousands of documents shop.tate.org.uk/turners-secret…
He also searched through the diaries of Ralph Wornum (the man he ordered to burn them) and found no mention of this at all. In fact, he found newspaper references to the images only a few years after they were supposed to have been burnt.
After considerable research, Warrell had to conclude that Ruskin didn’t actually burn anything!
Almost all the hundreds of allegedly missing drawings, which range from close-up detail to blurry colour washes, appear to be safely in the Tate collection.
In an essay in the British Art Journal Warrell argued that there are many reasons why Ruskin might have lied about this. Super prude, Ruskin idolised Turner & would have been deeply shocked to discover his hero was a bit of a slutty scallywag.
Also, the introduction of the first Obscene Publications Act of 1857 made the art world deeply paranoid that they could be prosecuted for works in gallery collections.
It seems that Ruskin idealised his hero so much that he just couldn’t accept his hero had a secret sex life, so he set about hiding this. Given that such a scandal could (and did) taint Turner’s reputation - Ruskin was likely trying to do him a favour by stashing the evidence.
Fortunately for us, almost all of Turner’s erotic doodling survive in the Tate, and you can see them here. tate.org.uk/art/research-p…
And here tate.org.uk/art/research-p…
Enjoy!
