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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Work for Earls Egremont and Lonsdale ... > Frittlewell Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Petworth Park and Lake c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Petworth Park and Lake’ c.1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Recto:
?Petworth Park and Lake circa 1809
D07757
Turner Bequest CXII 1
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 107 x 180 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘1’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXII 1’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In his note inside the front cover of the sketchbook (D07755), on to which this drawing extends slightly to the left, John Ruskin described the subject as ‘the sketch of Crowhurst: Liber S.’, thus identifying it as the first idea for the unpublished plate of Crowhurst intended for the Liber Studiorum. Turner’s finished drawing for the print is Tate D08172; Vaughan Bequest CXVIII R. However, Finberg’s entry continued: ‘The resemblance ... is very general and vague. I am inclined to doubt whether there is any connexion between the two.’ In fact the origin of Crowhurst is in the Views in Sussex sketchbook (Tate D10327; Turner Bequest CXXXVIII 8) and the present view is more probably in Petworth Park, looking towards the lake, Finberg’s ‘winding river’; the trees may be those on Lawn Hill. Ian Warrell, in unpublished notes,1 observes the similarity to the sweep of country and water seen through trees in Turner’s vignette The Beech Tree’s Petition (watercolour in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh)2 for Thomas Campbell’s Poetical Works (1837). This subject was set in Petworth’s park. See also folios 2 (D07758) and 85 verso (D07847) for related scenery and verse.
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
2
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.454, no.1286
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
June 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘?Petworth Park and Lake c.1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-petworth-park-and-lake-r1135710, accessed 23 April 2024.