J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

This careful drawing of the west front of Petworth House from across the lake served as the basis of the picture painted for the Earl of Egremont and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1810 (Tate T03880; displayed at Petworth House).1 The drawing closely anticipates the oil, with the difference that it shows the church of St Mary the Virgin, behind the house, with the pinnacles added after demolition of the old spire in 1800 whereas the picture, at least today, depicts a spire similar to the new one added by Sir Charles Barry in 1827; Turner painted this in later, to bring his picture up to date as well as to give some vertical relief to the horizontal mass of the house.2 Already in the drawing, Turner has decided on a view that does much to compensate for this, by showing elevated ground to the left, giving prominence to the lake and placing two tall-masted boats on its waters. The larger of these is surely too big for Petworth’s lake but, for its compositional emphasis, might have been borrowed from Tabley, Cheshire, the Seat of Sir J.F. Leicester, Bart.: Calm Morning (Tate T03878; displayed at Petworth House)3 which appeared at the Academy in 1809 and inspired Egremont’s commission for the view of his own house; in the picture of Tabley, Turner had included yachts that Sir John Leicester kept on his own lake for boating parties. Wilkinson states that the small island in Petworth’s lake, left centre in the drawing, was omitted from the picture. In fact it is present but smaller.

For the other view of Petworth from this 1809 sketchbook, doubtless offered to the Earl as an alternative design for his picture, see D07516; Turner Bequest CIX 5.

Verso:

Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Do’ [Ditto]