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

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, in which three women appear to play a card game while a fourth plays the pianoforte, is almost certainly Petworth’s White Library, 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). We know from another study catalogued in this section that a pianoforte was present in the room during Turner’s visit, and it seems possible that the same woman is portrayed in both studies; for more information, see the entry for Tate D22699 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 37). While the other study provides a greater sense of the rich interior setting, the present sheet is focused on the figures and their interaction; three dogs are included in the foreground.

Verso:

Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘33 c’ centre; stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 90’ bottom left; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right.