J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner Evening: A Boat on a River with a Distant Tower, ?near Petworth 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Evening: A Boat on a River with a Distant Tower, ?near Petworth
1827
Evening: A Boat on a River with a Distant Tower, ?near Petworth 1827
D22666
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 4
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 4
Watercolour and gouache on blue wove paper
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 4’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 4’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1951
The Turner Collection from Petworth, Tate Gallery, London, May–July 1951.
1953
Display of Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, January 1953–April 1959 (no catalogue, as ‘Evening: Petworth Park’).
1963
J.M.W. Turner, Bridgestone Gallery, Tokyo, September–October 1963, Fine Arts Museum, Osaska, November 1963 (16b).
1964
Turner 1775–1851: Watercolours from the British Museum, London, Presented in Association with the British Council, City Hall Art Gallery, Hong Kong, January 1964 (16b).
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).
1975
Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London, May 1975–February 1976 (117).
1978
Търнър, Shipka Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, April[?–May] 1978, Belgrade, Serbia [former Yugoslavia], May, Muzeul de Arte al RS [Republica Socialista] Romania, Bucharest, June–July 1978 (35).
1979
Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth August–October 1979 (no catalogue).
1981
J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) / ΤΖ.Μ.Γ. Τερνερ (1775–1851), National Pinakothiki, Athens, January–March 1981 (33).
1983
J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid, February–March 1983 (45).
1986
Turner Exhibition, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, August–October 1986, Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, October–November 1986 (89).
1995
Sketching the Sky: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, September 1995–February 1996 (no catalogue number).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.744, CCXLIV 4, as ‘Evening: Petworth Park’.
1909
Sir Charles Holroyd, W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson and Alexander J. Finberg, The Watercolours of J.M.W. Turner, London 1909, pl.XVII.
1910
C[harles] Lewis Hind, Turner’s Golden Visions, London and Edinburgh 1910 and 1925, p.133.
1960
Sir John Rothenstein, Turner (1775–1851), London 1960, p.20 reproduced.
1963
Basil Gray, Edward Croft-Murray and Martin Butlin, J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Bridgestone Gallery, Tokyo 1963, no.16b as ‘Evening’.
1964
Basil Gray, Edward Croft-Murray and Martin Butlin, Turner 1775–1851: An Exhibition of Watercolours from the British Museum London, Presented in Association with the British Council, exhibition catalogue, City Hall Art Gallery, Hong Kong 1964, no.16b as ‘Evening Petworth Park’.
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.1 (opposite p.4).
1975
Andrew Wilton, Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London 1975, no.117 as ‘Petworth: Evening sky over the lake, with a boat and distant tower’.
1978
Timothy Clifford, Търнър, exhibition catalogue, Shipka Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria 1978, no.35.
1979
Al Weil, ‘Turner and Impressionism’, Turner Society News, no.13, April 1979, p.[5] reproduced as ‘Evening, Petworth Park’ [cited incorrectly as ‘CCLIV’].
1981
Dimitrios Papastamos, John Gage and Lindsay Stainton, J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) / ΤΖ.Μ.Γ. Τερνερ (1775–1851), exhibition catalogue, National Pinakothiki, Athens 1981, pp.38, 104 reproduced as ‘Petworth: evening sky over the lake, with a boat and distant tower’.
1982
Evelyn Joll and Martin Butlin, L’opera completa di Turner 1793–1829, Classici dell’arte, Milan 1982, p.115 under no.278.
1983
Lindsay Stainton and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid 1983, no.45 reproduced.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.167 under no.288.
1986
Haruki Yaegashi, Martin Butlin, Evelyn Joll and others, Turner Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo 1986, no.89 reproduced as ‘Petworth: Evening Sky over the lake, with a Boat and Distant Tower’.
1989
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner at Petworth: Painter and Patron, London 1989, pp. 118, 147, 148, 274 pl.124.
1990
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner: Les Années Egremont: Chefs d’oeuvre inédits, trans. Tamara Préaud, Paris 1990, pl.124.
1995
Sketching the Sky: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, p.2.
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.
As the tower seen in the distance of this composition appears unconnected to Petworth Park, it has been suggested this study could show the nearby River Arun or River Rother, or perhaps Chichester Canal.1 The study certainly shares both feel and technique with many of the gouaches of Petworth’s two lakes, however, many of which are characterised by similarly dramatic sunsets (see, for example, Petworth Park, Sussex, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin2).
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘2 | l’ near centre; stamped in black with the Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXLIV 4’ bottom left.
Elizabeth Jacklin
December 2018
How to cite
Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Evening: A Boat on a River with a Distant Tower, ?near Petworth 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