J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner Petworth House: The North Gallery at Night, with Figures Contemplating Flaxman's Statue, 'St Michael Overcoming Satan' 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Petworth House: The North Gallery at Night, with Figures Contemplating Flaxman's Statue, 'St Michael Overcoming Satan'
1827
Petworth House: The North Gallery at Night, with Figures Contemplating Flaxman’s Statue, ‘St Michael Overcoming Satan’ 1827
D22687
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 25
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 25
Ink, watercolour and gouache on blue wove paper, 141 x 192 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 25’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 25’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1938
Four Screens, British Museum, London, September 1938 (no catalogue, as ‘Scene at Petworth’).
1952
Internationale tentoonstelling de aquarel, 1800–1950, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft, March–May 1952.
1963
Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, September–October 1963, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, November, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1963–January 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January–March, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, March–April, Brooklyn Museum, New York, May, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June–July 1964 (32).
1965
[Display of watercolours from the Turner Bequest], Tate Gallery, London, ? – [?]March 1965 (no catalogue, as ‘Flaxman’s group of the Archangel Michael and Satan’).
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).
1972
The Art of Drawing, exhibition catalogue, British Museum, London, October 1972–[?] (334a).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (349).
1975
Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis’, risunok, akvarel’, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, October–November 1975, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, December 1975–January 1976 (39).
1976
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, February–May 1976 (49).
1976
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, May–July 1976 (71).
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).
1982
J.M.W. Turner Watercolors from the British Museum, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, March–May 1982, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May–July 1982 (35).
1983
Turner and the Human Figure: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Loaned by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, December 1983–July 1984 (no catalogue), as ‘Flaxman’s group of the Archangel Michael and Satan’.
1987
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, April–October 1987 (no catalogue), as ‘Petworth: The North Bay of the Picture Gallery, with Flaxman’s “St. Michael and Satan”‘.
1989
[display of Turner’s Petworth watercolours and sketchbooks], Tate Gallery, London, Summer 1989 (no catalogue) , as ‘The North Gallery at Night’.
1991
Turner: The Fourth Decade: Watercolours 1820–1830, Tate Gallery, London, January–May 1991 (62).
1997
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: A Tate Gallery Collection Exhibition, Yokohama Museum of Art, June–August 1997, Fukuoka Art Museum, September–October, Nagoya City Art Museum, October–December 1997 (51).
1997
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna, March–June 1997 (59).
2001
Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann (eds.), The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 2001, p.111.
2001
Marble Mania: Sculpture Galleries in England 1640–1840, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, October–December 2001 (109).
2002
Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth, July–September 2002 (58).
2005
Turner at Petworth, Tate Gallery, London, October 2005–April 2006 (no catalogue).
2007
Hockney on Turner Watercolours, Tate Britain, London, June 2007–February 2008 (no catalogue).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.744, CCXLIV 25, as ‘Flaxman’s group of the Archangel Michael and Satan’.
1952
Internationale tentoonstelling de aquarel, 1800–1950, exhibition catalogue, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft 1952 (catalogue not seen) as ‘Petworth House: The Gallery with Flaxman’s Statue of St. Michael vanquishing Satan’.
1963
Edward Croft-Murray, Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1963, no.32 as ‘Petworth, the Picture Gallery at Night, with Flaxman’s “Satan Overcome by St. Michael”‘.
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.
1972
E[dward] C[roft]-M[urray], G. de Sieveking, John Picton and others, The Art of Drawing, exhibition catalogue, British Museum, London 1972, no.334a, one of three ‘Petworth Impressions’, as ‘The Gallery, with Flaxman’s Group of the Archangel Michael and Satan’.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p. 111, 114 reproduced as ‘Petworth: the Gallery, with Flaxman’s ‘St. Michael’.
1975
Graham Reynolds, Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis’, risunok, akvarel’, exhibition catalogue, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad 1975, pp.13, 64 reproduced.
1975
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner’s Colour Sketches 1820–34, London 1975, p.55 reproduced.
1976
David Loshak and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 1976, as ‘Petworth: The Gallery, with Flaxman’s “St. Michael”‘.
1976
Werner Hofmann, Andrew Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, pp.18, 72 reproduced, 130.
1977
Nobuyuki Senzoku, Turner, L’Art du Monde, Japan [and Paris?] 1977, p.[93] pl.II, 123, 124 reproduced.
1982
Lindsay Stainton and Richard S. Schneiderman, J.M.W. Turner Watercolors from the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens 1982, no.35 reproduced as ‘Petworth: The Gallery, with Flaxman’s “St. Michael”‘.
1982
Guy Weelan, J.M.W. Turner, trans. I. Mark Paris, New York 1982, pl.87, p.78.
1989
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner at Petworth: Painter and Patron, London 1989, pp.61, 70 note 1, 21, 144, 145, 194 pl.44.
1990
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner: Les Années Egremont: Chefs d’oeuvre inédits, trans. Tamara Préaud, Paris 1990, pl.44.
1991
Ian Warrell, Turner: The Fourth Decade: Watercolours 1820–1830, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1991, pp.13, 59 no.62 reproduced as ‘The North Gallery by Moonlight’, 1827.
1993
Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Impressions de Gran Bretanya i el Continent Europeu / Impresiones de Gran Bretaña y el Continente Europeo, exhibition catalogue, Centre Cultural de la Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona 1993, p.296 under no.42.
1994
Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Aquarelles et Dessins du Legs Turner: Collection de la Tate Gallery, Londres / Watercolours and Drawings from the Turner Bequest: Collection from the Tate Gallery, London, exhibition catalogue, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi 1994, p.146 under no.42.
1997
David B[layney] Brown, Yasuhide Shimbata and Hideko Numata,J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: A Tate Gallery Collection Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, Yokohama Museum of Art 1997, no.51 reproduced, pp.32, 36.
1997
David Blayney Brown, Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Evelyn Benesch and others, Joseph Mallord William Turner, exhibition catalogue, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna 1997, pp. 21, 122 under no.10, [216] reproduced [cited incorrectly as ‘CCLIV 25’], 217, 234 under no.63.
2001
Ruth Guilding, Marble Mania: Sculpture Galleries in England 1640–1840, exhibition catalogue, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London 2001, no.109 reproduced, p.51, pl.51.
2001
David Alan Mellor and Garry Fabian Miller, Tracing Light: A PhotoWorks In-Site Project: Petworth House, West Sussex, 1999–2000, Maidstone 2001, pp.[8] reproduced (detail), 53, 56 reproduced.
2002
[Giles Waterfield], Langlands & Bell at Petworth: Turner Studio Residency Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, Petworth House, Petworth 2002, p.20.
2002
Christopher Rowell, Ian Warrell and David Blayney Brown, Turner at Petworth, exhibition catalogue, Petworth House, Petworth 2002, pp. 140, 142 fig.136, 143, 144, 145, 188, 194 under no.58.
2003
Barry Venning, Turner, Art & Ideas, London 2003, p.192 pl.115, 193.
2005
‘Great Contemporaries’, Turner Society News, no.101, December 2005, p.20.
2006
Andrew Wilton, Turner as Draughtsman, Aldershot 2006, pp.6, 7 fig.1.3, 92.
2007
David Blayney Brown, Turner Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2007, pp.14, 73 reproduced.
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 North Gallery during his 1827 visit; for more information and the other study, see the entry for D22675 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 13). Both show the North or Square Bay dominated by John Flaxman’s huge marble, St Michael Overcoming Satan (Petworth collection). Lord Egremont had commissioned this sculpture by April 1817, and it was completed in 1826, the year of Flaxman’s death, when the artist also advised his patron on a suitable scheme for the sculpture’s display.1 In the present night scene the sculpture is dramatically lit by raking moonlight. The lunette windows seen in the drawing form the source of the light; these had been filled in and replaced with a central skylight by 1835.2 Both studies include groups of figures and in the present composition Flaxman’s sculpture provides the clear focal point, with the male figure on the left pointing up at the marble. Christopher Rowell has linked Turner’s study to an established tradition of visiting sculpture galleries at night, when candles or lamps were used to dramatically light the statues.3
Verso:
The verso of this sheet could not be inspected at the time of writing.
Elizabeth Jacklin
How to cite
‘Petworth House: The North Gallery at Night, with Figures Contemplating Flaxman’s Statue, ‘St Michael Overcoming Satan’ 1827’, catalogue entry, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2024, https://www