J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner Evening: A Windmill at Sunset ?near Petworth 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Evening: A Windmill at Sunset ?near Petworth
1827
Evening: A Windmill at Sunset ?near Petworth 1827
D22663
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 1
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 1
Watercolour and gouache on blue wove paper, 140 x 189 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 1’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 1’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1934
Four Screens, British Museum, London, July 1934–July 1935 (no catalogue, as ‘Evening, Petworth Park’).
1965
[Display of watercolours from the Turner Bequest], Tate Gallery, London, ? – [?]March 1965 (no catalogue, as ‘Evening, Petworth Park’).
1970
Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels, November 1970–January 1971 (37).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (341).
1975
Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis’, risunok, akvarel’, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, October–November 1975, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, December 1975–January 1976 (33).
1976
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, February–May 1976 (43).
1976
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, May–July 1976 (65).
1978
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Lent by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, January–June 1978 (no catalogue, as ‘Petworth’).
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 1, as ‘Evening: Petworth Park’.
1910
C[harles] Lewis Hind, Turner’s Golden Visions, London and Edinburgh 1910 and 1925, p.133.
1964
[Sir] John Rothenstein and Martin Butlin, Turner, London 1964, p.44, pl.90(a).
1970
Luke Herrmann, Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels 1970, p.9, no.37.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, no.341 as ‘Petworth: a Windmill at Sunset’.
1975
Graham Reynolds, Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis’, risunok, akvarel’, exhibition catalogue, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad 1975, p.13.
1975
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner’s Colour Sketches 1820–34, London 1975, p.52 reproduced.
1976
David Loshak and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 1976, p.55 reproduced as ‘Petworth: A Windmill at Sunset’.
1976
Werner Hofmann, Andrew Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, p.18 no.65 reproduced.
1989
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner at Petworth: Painter and Patron, London 1989, pp.128, 147, 267 pl.117.
1990
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner: Les Années Egremont: Chefs d’oeuvre inédits, trans. Tamara Préaud, Paris 1990, pl.117.
1995
Sketching the Sky: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, p.2.
1997
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.100.
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.
It is unclear if the two views of windmills catalogued in this section (for the other see Tate D22723; Turner Bequest CCXLIV 61) relate to the Petworth windmill indicated in a couple of Turner’s sketchbook drawings of the town (see Tate D22825; Turner Bequest CCXLV 24 a) and depicted in a detailed watercolour by John Constable (British Museum, London). Seeing little connection with Petworth town’s topography as it is implied in Turner’s sketchbooks, Warrell suggests the two gouache studies relate to the surrounding area rather than Petworth itself, which seems the likeliest scenario.1 Eric Shanes, on the other hand, did not rule out a depiction of a Petworth windmill as a possibility, also noting a possible connection to a further colour study, which is not made on blue paper (Tate D25475; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 352).2
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘1 | a’ near centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXLIV 1’ bottom left.
Elizabeth Jacklin
December 2018
How to cite
Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Evening: A Windmill at Sunset ?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