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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

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
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
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.
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
1
Butlin, Luther and Warrell 1989, p.128.
2
Shanes 1997, p.100.
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.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/evening-a-windmill-at-sunset-near-petworth-r1209063, accessed 04 September 2025.