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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

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
Ink, watercolour and gouache on blue wove paper, 141 x 192 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 25’ 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.
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
1
Rowell, Warrell and Brown 2002, pp.143, 145.
2
Butlin, Luther and Warrell 1989, p.145.
3
Rowell, Warrell and Brown 2002, p.145.
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.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/petworth-house-the-north-gallery-at-night-with-figures-contemplating-flaxmans-statue-st-r1209120, accessed 04 May 2025.