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 Conversation Group, Probably in the White Library 1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Petworth House: A Conversation Group, Probably in the White Library’ 1827
Petworth House: A Conversation Group, Probably in the White Library 1827
D22743
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 81
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 140 x 194 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 81’ 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.
The setting for this scene is thought to be Petworth’s White Library,1 a well-used drawing room in which guests gathered both before and after dinner; for more information about Turner’s numerous studies of this room, see the entry for Tate D22678 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 16). The study is comparable in both subject and colour palette to others identified as showing the White Library, particularly D22688 and D22742 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 26, 80). It is particularly notable for its depiction of warm evening light, perhaps evoking something of the palette and light effects found in Rembrandt’s paintings. Turner’s slightly later painting Jessica (Tate T03887; in situ at Petworth House2), which was bought by Lord Egremont by 1831, is a more definite example of Turner’s interest in the Dutch master around this time.
1
Butlin, Luther and Warrell 1989, pp.142, 143, 176.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, no.333.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘30 | c’ near centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXLIV 81’.

Elizabeth Jacklin
February 2019

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Petworth House: A Conversation Group, Probably in the White Library 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-conversation-group-probably-in-the-white-library-r1209152, accessed 10 June 2025.