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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner Petworth House: The White Library, with Ladies Seated round a Table 1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Petworth House: The White Library, with Ladies Seated round a Table’ 1827
Petworth House: The White Library, with Ladies Seated round a Table 1827
D22702
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 40
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 148 x 191 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 40’ 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.
The setting for this scene, which shows a group of ladies sat around a table, is Petworth’s White Library. This space was used as drawing room in which guests gathered both before and after dinner; for more information about Turner’s numerous studies of this interior, see the entry for Tate D22678 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 16). Although the room is shown indistinctly here, the suggestion of reddish walls and the bookshelves seen behind the figure group on the right make it recognisable: these are represented in much more detail, but using the same goldish-yellow hue and linear marks, in D22678. The scene also well reflects the library’s role as a social hub within the house.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘15 | l’ near centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXLIV 40’ bottom left.

Elizabeth Jacklin
February 2019

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Petworth House: The White Library, with Ladies Seated round a Table 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-white-library-with-ladies-seated-round-a-table-r1209132, accessed 07 June 2026.