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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sunset across the Park from the Terrace of Petworth House 1827

Sunset across the Park from the Terrace of Petworth House 1827
D22664
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 2
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 140 x 193 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 2’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of a large group of separate studies, most of which were made in gouache 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.
Turner made numerous colour studies of Petworth Park during his 1827 visit: the present view includes the larger of Petworth’s two lakes on the right, with Tillington Church roughly indicated in the distance. It and a number of other studies in the present grouping capture the sun setting over the park. Turner seems to have used this study, alongside a more topographically detailed pencil sketch (Tate D34102; Turner Bequest CCCXLI 380), to develop a canvas relating to his paintings for the Carved Room at Petworth, Petworth Park: Tillington Church in the Distance (Tate N00559); for more information about the paintings, see the Introduction to this subsection. Details from the present study, including a rich sunset and the line of trees, are present in Turner’s painting. A more highly finished oil with a slightly different viewpoint (Tate T03883; in situ at Petworth House), sees the idea fully developed into a scene bathed in a warm golden light, also drawing on a sketch in the Petworth sketchbook (Tate D22657–D22658; Turner Bequest CCXLIII 77a–78).
Verso:
The verso could not be inspected at the time of cataloguing.

Elizabeth Jacklin
December 2018

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Sunset across the Park from the Terrace of Petworth House 1827’, catalogue entry, December 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2024, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/sunset-across-the-park-from-the-terrace-of-petworth-house-r1209064, accessed 20 April 2025.