J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner Twilight: Petworth Lake, Looking South 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Twilight: Petworth Lake, Looking South
1827
Twilight: Petworth Lake, Looking South 1827
D22680
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 18
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 18
Watercolour and gouache on blue wove paper
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 18’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 18’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1951
The Turner Collection from Petworth, Tate Gallery, London, May–July 1951.
1953
Display of Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, January 1953–April 1959 (no catalogue, as ‘Twilight: the lake at Petworth’).
1963
J.M.W. Turner, Bridgestone Gallery, Tokyo, September–October 1963, Fine Arts Museum, Osaska, November 1963 (16c).
1964
Turner 1775–1851: Watercolours from the British Museum, London, Presented in Association with the British Council, City Hall Art Gallery, Hong Kong, January 1964 (16c).
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).
1975
Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London, May 1975–February 1976 (118).
1978
Търнър, Shipka Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, April[?–May] 1978, Belgrade, Serbia [former Yugoslavia], May, Muzeul de Arte al RS [Republica Socialista] Romania, Bucharest, June–July 1978 (36).
1979
Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth August–October 1979 (no catalogue).
1981
J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) / ΤΖ.Μ.Γ. Τερνερ (1775–1851), National Pinakothiki, Athens, January–March 1981 (34).
1983
J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid, February–March 1983 (46).
1986
Turner Exhibition, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, August–October 1986, Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, October–November 1986 (90).
2002
Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth, July–September 2002 (80).
2005
Turner at Petworth, Tate Gallery, London, October 2005–April 2006 (no catalogue).
2008
Тёрнер [Turner] (1775–1851), Pushkin Museum of Art, Moscow, November 2008–February 2009 (56).
2009
Turner from the Tate Collection, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, April–July 2009 (56).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.744, CCXLIV 18, as ‘Twilight: the lake at Petworth’.
1951
John Rothenstein, The Turner Collection from Petworth, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1951 as ‘Twilight: the lake at Petworth’.
1963
Basil Gray, Edward Croft-Murray and Martin Butlin, J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Bridgestone Gallery, Tokyo 1963, no.16c as ‘Twilight: the lake at Petworth’.
1964
Basil Gray, Edward Croft-Murray and Martin Butlin, Turner 1775–1851: An Exhibition of Watercolours from the British Museum London, Presented in Association with the British Council, exhibition catalogue, City Hall Art Gallery, Hong Kong 1964, no.16c as ‘Twilight the lake 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.
1975
Andrew Wilton, Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London 1975, no.118 reproduced as ‘Petworth: Cloudy sky over the lake’.
1978
Timothy Clifford, Търнър, exhibition catalogue, Shipka Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria 1978, no.36, [listed in catalogue but not in British Museum loans book].
1981
Dimitrios Papastamos, John Gage and Lindsay Stainton, J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) / ΤΖ.Μ.Γ. Τερνερ (1775–1851), exhibition catalogue, National Pinakothiki, Athens 1981, pp.38, 107 reproduced as ‘Petworth: cloudy sunset over the lake’.
1982
Evelyn Joll and Martin Butlin, L’opera completa di Turner 1793–1829, Classici dell’arte, Milan 1982, p.115 under no.278.
1983
Lindsay Stainton and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid 1983, no.46 reproduced.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.167 under no.288.
1986
Haruki Yaegashi, Martin Butlin, Evelyn Joll and others, Turner Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo 1986, no.90 reproduced as ‘Petworth: Evening over the Lake’.
1988
Barbara Dawson, Turner in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 1988, p.86 fig.32.
1989
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner at Petworth: Painter and Patron, London 1989, pp. 118, 147, 148, 226 pl.76, as ‘Twilight: a lake or river scene (possibly Chichester Canal)’.
1990
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner: Les Années Egremont: Chefs d’oeuvre inédits, trans. Tamara Préaud, Paris 1990, pl.76.
2008
Anna Poznanskaya, Ian Warrell, Mathew Imms and others, Тёрнер [Turner], exhibition catalogue, Pushkin Museum of Art, Moscow 2008, no.56 as ‘Twilight: Petworth Lake Looking South’.
2002
Christopher Rowell, Ian Warrell and David Blayney Brown, Turner at Petworth, exhibition catalogue, Petworth House, Petworth 2002, pp.179, 183 fig.178, 195 no.80, as ‘Twilight: Petworth Lake Looking South’.
2009
Fan Di’an, Ian Warrell, Matthew Imms and others, Turner from the Tate Collection, exhibition catalogue, National Art Museum of China, Beijing 2009, no.56 as ‘Twilight: Petworth Lake Looking South’.
2017
Anne Hodge and Niamh MacNally, The Works of J.M.W. Turner at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 2017, p.80 fig.54.
This is one of a large group of separate studies, most of which were made in gouache 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.
Like a number of the colour studies included in this section, this view is dominated by a blazing sunset; sunsets are also an important feature of the painted landscapes Turner made for Petworth’s Carved Room (for more information, see the Introduction to this subsection). The features of the landscape itself are relatively indistinct, and as a result it is difficult to identify the location with certainty. It seems likeliest to be a view over Petworth’s largest lake, looking south over the gentle hills of the park, and is comparable to a sheet in the National Gallery of Ireland, Petworth Park, Sussex.1 The study has previously also been linked to Turner’s two paintings of Chichester Canal made in connection with the Carved Room scheme (Tate N00560 and T03885; the latter is in situ at Petworth House).2 It bears some relation to the first of these canvases in terms of the sunset and the bare bones of the topography, but the connection appears no greater than that offered by a southerly viewpoint from the lake.
Technical notes:
There is a concentrated area of bright red pigment in the lower left, which does not appear connected to the palette of the colour study itself. Turner made use of a wet-on-wet technique, particularly in the section of the sheet showing the lake.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘2 | c’ near centre, and ‘CCXLIV 18’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXLIV 18’ bottom left.
Elizabeth Jacklin
December 2018
How to cite
Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Twilight: Petworth Lake, Looking South 1827’, catalogue entry, December 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2024, https://www