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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner Petworth House: A Bedroom with a Fire Burning, and a Bed with Yellow Curtains 1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Petworth House: A Bedroom with a Fire Burning, and a Bed with Yellow Curtains’ 1827
Petworth House: A Bedroom with a Fire Burning, and a Bed with Yellow Curtains 1827
D22738
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 76
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 142 x 190 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 76’ 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 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.
Turner made several studies of the bedrooms at Petworth during his 1827 visit; for more information and a list see the entry for Tate D22677 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 15). This study is one of three to include a bed with vibrant yellow curtains, seen in contrast to the blue of the paper (for the others see Tate D22732 and D22734; Turner Bequest CCXLIV 70 and 72). Christopher Rowell has noted that by 1837 (when an inventory of the house’s contents was taken) only two bedrooms could feasibly relate to these studies: either the ‘Second East Room’, which contained a bed of ‘Yellow, French grey silk damask’ or, more likely, the ‘South East Room’, which contained a bed of ‘yellow silk damask’.1
Also present in this study is a fireplace, with a mirror on the wall above it, as well as one or two indistinctly drawn figures hinting at an unknown narrative.
1
Rowell, Warrell and Brown 2002, pp.163, 164.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘28 | c’ near centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXLIV 76’ bottom left.

Elizabeth Jacklin
February 2019

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Petworth House: A Bedroom with a Fire Burning, and a Bed with Yellow Curtains 1827’, catalogue entry, February 2019, 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/petworth-house-a-bedroom-with-a-fire-burning-and-a-bed-with-yellow-curtains-r1209147, accessed 21 April 2026.