Petworth House: The Grand Staircase from the West 1827

Elizabeth Jacklin

Joseph Mallord William Turner Petworth House: The Grand Staircase from the West 1827

Petworth House: The Grand Staircase from the West 1827

D22771
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 109

Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 142 x 190 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 109’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Exhibition history

1891

Fourth Loan Collection, Ruskin Art Museum, Meersbrook Park, Sheffield 1891–5, Leeds Art Gallery 1896, National Gallery, London 1897, Glasgow Art Gallery 1898–9, National Gallery, London 1900, Newport Free Library and Museum 1901–4, Wolverhampton 1905, Municipal School of Art, Manchester 1906–8, Nottingham Art Gallery 1909–11, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne 1912, York City Art Gallery, May–September 1913, Corporation Art Gallery, Bury 1913, Art Gallery, Swansea, April 1914, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil 1915, Tate Gallery, London 1916–21, Newport 1922, Whitworth Institute Art Galleries, Manchester 1923–4, Tate Gallery 1925, Wolverhampton 1926, Tate Gallery 1927–30, transferred to the British Museum, London 1931 (no overall catalogue but apparently numbered 28b and 50 at different times, as one of ‘Two Interiors (Room and Staircase), Petworth’).

1970

Turner at Petworth: An Exhibition Arranged by the National Trust of Drawings of Petworth by J.M.W. Turner R.A. 1775–1851, Petworth House, Petworth, June–August 1970 (no catalogue).

1974

Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (362).

1978

Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Lent by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, January–June 1978 (no catalogue, as ‘Petworth’).

1979

Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth August–October 1979 (no catalogue).

1983

J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (170).

2001

William Turner: Licht und Farbe, Museum Folkwang, Essen, September 2001–January 2002, Kunsthaus Zürich, February–May 2002 (138).

2002

Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth, July–September 2002 (42).

2005

Turner at Petworth, Tate Gallery, London, October 2005–April 2006 (no catalogue).

References

1896

William White, Notes on a Biographical Series of Fifty Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Belonging to the National Gallery Collection, London 1896, pp.25–6 no.31, as one of ‘Two Interiors (Room and Staircase), Petworth’.

1906

A Catalogue of an Exhibition of Studies & Drawings ... by Frederic Shields ...Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Municipal School of Art, Manchester 1906, p.[10] no.28 (b), as ‘Staircase at Petworth’.

1909

A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.746, CCXLIV 109, as ‘Staircase at Petworth’.

1912

Catalogue of Original Drawings in Water Colour, Etc., by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Lent by the Trustees of the National Gallery, exhibition catalogue, Laing Art Gallery and Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne 1912, no.24, as ‘Staircase at Petworth’.

1970

Lord Egremont and Kenneth Clark, Turner at Petworth: An Exhibition Arranged by the National Trust of Drawings of Petworth by J.M.W. Turner R.A. 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Petworth House, Petworth 1970, p.10.

1974

Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, as ‘Petworth: the Hall and Staircase’.

1983

John Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, no.170 reproduced.

1989

Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner at Petworth: Painter and Patron, London 1989, pp.142, 156 pl.6.

1990

Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner: Les Années Egremont: Chefs d’oeuvre inédits, trans. Tamara Préaud, Paris 1990, pl.6.

2001

Andrew Wilton, Inge Bodesohn-Vogel and Helena Robinson, William Turner: Licht und Farbe, exhibition catalogue, Museum Folkwang, Essen 2001, no.138 reproduced, pp.53, 312 under no.78, 345 under no.147.

2002

Christopher Rowell, Ian Warrell and David Blayney Brown, Turner at Petworth, exhibition catalogue, Petworth House, Petworth 2002, pp.94, 95 fig.94, 194 under no.42.

2002

Ursula Seibold-Bultmann, ‘Window on the Continent: Turner in Essen and Zurich’, Turner Society News, no.90, March 2002, p.2.

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 two studies of Petworth’s Grand, or ‘Painted’, Staircase: the present sheet, a sweeping, almost panorama-like, view from below, and Tate D22756 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 94), which shows the staircase from the bedroom landing. It can also be glimpsed in the background of D22735 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 73).

The staircase boasts walls decorated on a grand scale with paintings of the myth of Prometheus and Pandora, as well as other subjects, by the artist Louise Laguerre (1663–1721). The painting seen in most detail, towards the right of the sheet, is Laguerre’s depiction of Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Somerset, whose fortune funded the rebuilding of Petworth from 1682, in a chariot.1 Also notable in this study is Turner’s use of dark, broken pigment to delineate both the stairs and the chequered marble floor below – Christopher Rowell has determined that this study is the only visual record of this floor’s existence.2

Rowell, Warrell and Brown 2002, p.94.

Ibid, p.97.

Technical notes:

The paper surrounding the image has faded from the original blue colour, which is likely a result of overexposure to light during the drawing’s time as part of the ‘Fourth Loan Collection’(see the ‘Exhibited’ section above).

Verso:

Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘33’ upper left, ‘41 | a’ near centre, ‘ccxliv 109’ bottom centre, and ‘[...] 28’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXLIV 109’ bottom left.

Elizabeth Jacklin
February 2019

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Petworth House: The Grand Staircase from the West 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-the-grand-staircase-from-the-west-r1209172, accessed 19 June 2025.

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Petworth House: The Grand Staircase from the West 1827

Exhibition history

References

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Petworth House: The Grand Staircase from the West 1827

Exhibition history

References

How to cite