J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner Petworth House: The South Wall of the Square Dining-Room 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Petworth House: The South Wall of the Square Dining-Room
1827
Petworth House: The South Wall of the Square Dining–Room 1827
D22770
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 108
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 108
Gouache on blue wove paper, 138 x 188 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 108’ bottom right
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram lower right
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 108’ bottom right
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram lower right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1891
Fourth Loan Collection, Ruskin Art Museum, Meersbrook Park, Sheffield 1891–5, Leeds Art Gallery 1896, National Gallery, London 1897, Glasgow Art Gallery 1898–9, National Gallery, London 1900, Newport Free Library and Museum 1901–4, Wolverhampton 1905, Municipal School of Art, Manchester 1906–8, Nottingham Art Gallery 1909–11, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne 1912, York City Art Gallery, May–September 1913, Corporation Art Gallery, Bury 1913, Art Gallery, Swansea, April 1914, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil 1915, Tate Gallery, London 1916–21, Newport 1922, Whitworth Institute Art Galleries, Manchester 1923–4, Tate Gallery 1925, Wolverhampton 1926, Tate Gallery 1927–30, transferred to the British Museum, London 1931 (no overall catalogue but apparently numbered 28a and 50 at different times, as one of ‘Two Interiors (Room and Staircase), Petworth’).
1970
Turner at Petworth: An Exhibition Arranged by the National Trust of Drawings of Petworth by J.M.W. Turner R.A. 1775–1851, Petworth House, Petworth, June–August 1970 (no catalogue).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (361).
1978
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Lent by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, January–June 1978 (no catalogue, as ‘Petworth’).
1979
Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth August–October 1979 (no catalogue).
1983
J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (167).
2001
William Turner: Licht und Farbe, Museum Folkwang, Essen, September 2001–January 2002, Kunsthaus Zürich, February–May 2002 (136).
2002
Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth, July–September 2002 (38).
2005
Turner at Petworth, Tate Gallery, London, October 2005–April 2006 (no catalogue).
References
1896
William White, Notes on a Biographical Series of Fifty Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Belonging to the National Gallery Collection, London 1896, pp.25–6 no.31, as one of ‘Two Interiors (Room and Staircase), Petworth’.
1906
A Catalogue of an Exhibition of Studies & Drawings ... by Frederic Shields ...Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Municipal School of Art, Manchester 1906, p.[10] no.28a, as ‘Drawing–room, Petworth’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.746, CCXLIV 108, as ‘Drawing–room, Petworth’.
1912
Catalogue of Original Drawings in Water Colour, Etc., by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Lent by the Trustees of the National Gallery, exhibition catalogue, Laing Art Gallery and Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne 1912, no.23, as ‘Drawing Room, Petworth’.
1970
Lord Egremont and Kenneth Clark, Turner at Petworth: An Exhibition Arranged by the National Trust of Drawings of Petworth by J.M.W. Turner R.A. 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Petworth House, Petworth 1970, pl.6 opposite p.13.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.111 as ‘Petworth: the Drawing Room’.
1975
Luke Herrmann, Turner: Paintings, Watercolours, Prints & Drawings, London 1975, pp.37, [173] pl.130, 233.
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, pp.169, 225 note 13.
1981
William Gaunt and Robin Hamlyn, Turner, revised ed., Oxford 1981, p.[70] fig.27.
1983
John Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, no.167 reproduced.
1987
John Gage, J.M.W. Turner: ‘A Wonderful Range of Mind’, New Haven and London 1987, p.98, 99 fig.124, 163.
1989
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner at Petworth: Painter and Patron, London 1989, pp. 50, 62, 141, 152 pl.2.
1990
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner: Les Années Egremont: Chefs d’oeuvre inédits, trans. Tamara Préaud, Paris 1990, pl.2.
1991
Ian Warrell, Turner: The Fourth Decade: Watercolours 1820–1830, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1991, p.60 under no.64.
1994
William Gaunt and Robin Hamlyn, Turner, London 1994, p.70 fig.27.
1997
Christopher Rowell, Petworth House, West Sussex, London 1997, p.12, 13, 85 reproduced.
2001
Andrew Wilton, Inge Bodesohn–Vogel and Helena Robinson, William Turner: Licht und Farbe, exhibition catalogue, Museum Folkwang, Essen 2001, no.136 reproduced, pp.53, 312 under no.78, 345 under no.147.
2002
Christopher Rowell, Ian Warrell and David Blayney Brown, Turner at Petworth, exhibition catalogue, Petworth House, Petworth 2002, pp.81, 84 fig.84, 85, 194 under no.38.
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.
In this richly detailed study, Turner shows Petworth’s Square Dining Room in all its splendour. The symmetry of the hang on the south wall, part of which can also be glimpsed in a view from the Somerset Room (Tate D22735; Turner Bequest CCXLIV 73), is displayed in detail, with many smaller paintings in gilt frames surrounding the large landscape format canvas in the centre. This is Sir Joshua Reynolds’s 1786 painting Macbeth and the Witches, which has been at Petworth since the early nineteenth–century. The painting above the table on the right, on the adjacent wall, has also been identified as Van Dyck’s The 10th Earl of Northumberland and his Family.1Using the 1837 inventory of the house’s contents and 1839–42 picture hanging diagrams, Christopher Rowell has also been able to link art and objects portrayed in the study to the following items still in the house today: two further Van Dyck portraits; a group of English seventeenth– and eighteenth–century portraits; some eighteenth–century side tables; and blue and white porcelain acquired around 1700.2
While this is one of the most detailed Petworth interior studies, the room’s architectural features and decorative contents emphasised, it is also an exercise in capturing on paper effects of light and shade, the light shown streaming in from two windows, landing most obviously on the rug, or ‘Brussels carpet’,3 in the foreground, which Turner gave texture to using short, mottled strokes of paint.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘[... ?28]’ lower right; inscribed in pencil ‘32’ upper left; inscribed in pencil ‘41 [?]c’ centre; inscribed in pencil ‘CCXLIV 108’ bottom centre; stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 108’ bottom left; stamped in black with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom left.
Elizabeth Jacklin
February 2019
How to cite
Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Petworth House: The South Wall of the Square Dining–Room 1827’, catalogue entry, February 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, June 2024, https://www