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 Seated Figure in a Yellow Dress, Probably in the White Library 1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Petworth House: A Seated Figure in a Yellow Dress, Probably in the White Library’ 1827
Petworth House: A Seated Figure in a Yellow Dress, Probably in the White Library 1827
D22742
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 80
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 139 x 191 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 80’ 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). While this study is indistinct, it relates to other studies of the library, particularly Tate D22688 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 26), which has a comparable colour palette and is similarly dominated by a lady in a chair.
1
Butlin, Luther and Warrell 1989, pp.142, 143, 176.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed ‘30 | l’ near centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXLIV 80’ bottom left.

Elizabeth Jacklin
February 2019

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Petworth House: A Seated Figure in a Yellow Dress, 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-seated-figure-in-a-yellow-dress-probably-in-the-white-library-r1209151, accessed 07 May 2026.