In bed with JMW Turner: erotic side of painter explored in new exhibition

Joseph Mallord William Turner is known, of course, for maritime masterpieces such as The Fighting Temeraire (1839). But the painter dubbed the “father of Modern art” also had a more sensual side—and this erotic angle is explored in a new exhibition of intimate images at Turner’s House in Twickenham, UK.

Between the Sheets (9 July-30 October), on show in the smaller bedroom at the artist’s rural retreat, includes a wealth of works, from Turner’s initial studies of the female form made at the Royal Academy Schools to drawings of prostitutes created on overseas jaunts. The exhibition also includes images that may be of the artist’s lovers Sarah Danby and Sophia Booth, say the co-curators and trustees of Turner House, Franny Moyle and Jacqueline Riding.