J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner Petworth House: The Red Room 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Petworth House: The Red Room
1827
Petworth House: The Red Room 1827
D22683
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 21
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 21
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 140 x 190 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 21’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram lower right
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 21’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram lower right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1913
Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil, December 1913–May 1914 (no catalogue but numbered 112).
1914
[Petworth watercolours], Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, April–July 1914 (no catalogue found).
1914
Welsh Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, October 1914–January 1915 (112).
1919
[Works from the Turner Bequest], Swansea 1919 (no catalogue found) (112).
1953
Display of Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, January 1953–April 1959 (no catalogue, as ‘Petworth: The Red Room’).
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 (347).
1975
Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis’, risunok, akvarel’, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, October–November 1975, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, December 1975–January 1976 (37).
1976
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, February–May 1976 (47).
1976
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, May–July 1976 (69).
1978
Turner 1775–1851, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, December 1978–February 1979 (48).
1979
Oleos y acuarelas de Joseph Mallord William Turner, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela, October[–?November] 1979 (BM 46).
1979
Exposicion del gran pintor ingles, William Turner: Oleos y acuarelas: Collecciones de la Tate Gallery, British Museum y otros museos ingleses, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, August–September 1979 (BM46).
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 (33).
1983
J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (168).
2005
Turner at Petworth, Tate Gallery, London, October 2005–April 2006 (no catalogue).
2002
Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth, July–September 2002 (56).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.744, CCXLIV 21, as ‘The red room’.
1914
Isaac J. Williams, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Welsh Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., exhibition catalogue, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff 1914, no.112 as ‘The Red Room, 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.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.111 as ‘Petworth: the Red Room’.
1975
Graham Reynolds, Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis’, risunok, akvarel’, exhibition catalogue, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad 1975, p.13.
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 Red Room’.
1976
Werner Hofmann, Andrew Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, no.69 reproduced, pp.18, 130.
1978
John Sillevis, Nini Jonker and Hripsimé Visser, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague 1978, no.48, p.90 reproduced as ‘Petworth, The Red Room’.
1979
John Gage and Ana T. de Gradowska, Oleos y acuarelas de Joseph Mallord William Turner, exhibition catalogue, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela 1979, no.BM 46.
1979
John Gage, Exposicion del gran pintor ingles, William Turner: Oleos y acuarelas: Collecciones de la Tate Gallery, British Museum y otros museos ingleses, exhibition catalogue, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City 1979, no.BM46, p.14 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.33 reproduced as ‘Petworth: The Red Room’.
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.168 reproduced.
1987
[Andrew Wilton], The Turner Collection in the Clore Gallery: An Illustrated Guide: Published to Celebrate the Opening of the Gallery by Her Majesty The Queen, 1 April 1987, London 1987, p.116, 117 reproduced.
1987
Andrew Wilton, Turner Watercolours in the Clore Gallery, London 1987, p.[109], pl.47.
1989
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner at Petworth: Painter and Patron, London 1989, pp.62, 144, 192 pl.42.
1990
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner: Les Années Egremont: Chefs d’oeuvre inédits, trans. Tamara Préaud, Paris 1990, pl.42.
1997
Christopher Rowell, Petworth House, West Sussex, London 1997, p.31, 32 reproduced.
2002
Christopher Rowell, Ian Warrell and David Blayney Brown, Turner at Petworth, exhibition catalogue, Petworth House, Petworth 2002, pp.134 fig.132, 135, 137, 194 under no.56.
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.
One of the more detailed of Turner’s Petworth interiors, this colour study of the house’s aptly named Red Room contrasts the vibrant red of the walls against the blue-grey of the paper. The large blue and white vase in the foreground stands out against the red backdrop, framed in the mirror just behind it, as well as the warm golden brown of the floor and furnishings. Using the estate records, Christopher Rowell has determined that the room was painted the shade shown here in around 1825: previously the room had been green, followed by a darker crimson subsequently replaced by the bolder red seen here.1
Most of the visible paintings have been identified and remain at Petworth today. The large paintings on either side of the door leading to the North Gallery are two of Petworth’s Van Dyck portraits, showing Sir Robert and Lady Shirley.2 Above the door is Joshua Reynolds’s George Brydes, Admiral Lord Rodney (Egremont Private Collection), while Antoine Le Nain’s Peasant Family sits below the portrait of Lady Shirley on the right.3
Verso:
Blank, save for splatters of gouache and inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘8 x’ centre; inscribed in pencil ‘CCXLIV 21’ bottom right; stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 21’ bottom left; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram bottom left.
Elizabeth Jacklin
February 2019
How to cite
Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Petworth House: The Red Room 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