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

This is one of a large group of separate studies, most of which were made in gouache and watercolour on blue paper, associated with a visit to Petworth House in West Sussex, the home of the third Earl of Egremont. For more information, see the Introduction to this section.

Many of the studies catalogued in this section seem primarily concerned with capturing effects of light, and this sheet, with its simple palette of brownish watercolour seen against a blue paper ground, is particularly luminous, with white gouache highlights used to portray daylight streaming into the space. This is Turner’s only study of the staircase leading up to the Old Library: the entrance to this room, which, like some of the bedrooms, was used as an artists’ studio by visitors to the house, is halfway up the stairs; the entrance to various bedrooms, including those of the servants, is at the top of the stairs.1

For more information about the Old Library see the entry for D22685 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 23).

Verso:

Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘35 l’ centre; stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 95’ bottom left; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram bottom left.