J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner Petworth House: The White Library, with Bookshelves and a Rococo Pier-Glass, and Several Figures 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Petworth House: The White Library, with Bookshelves and a Rococo Pier-Glass, and Several Figures
1827
Petworth House: The White Library, with Bookshelves and a Rococo Pier–Glass, and Several Figures 1827
D22686
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 24
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 24
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 139 x 194 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1938
Four Screens, British Museum, London, September 1938 (no catalogue, as ‘Scene at Petworth’).
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 (136).
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 (40).
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 (38).
1983
J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid, February–March 1983 (50).
1983
Turner and the Human Figure: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Loaned by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, December 1983–July 1984 (no catalogue, as ‘Morning room, with figures’.
2002
Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth, July–September 2002 (48).
2005
Turner at Petworth, Tate Gallery, London, October 2005–April 2006 (no catalogue).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.744, CCXLIV 24, as ‘Morning room, with figures’.
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, pp.25, 90 no.136 reproduced as ‘Petworth: A room with bookshelves and a rococo pier-glass, with several figures’.
1975
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner’s Colour Sketches 1820–34, London 1975, p.54 reproduced.
1978
Timothy Clifford, Търнър, exhibition catalogue, Shipka Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria 1978, no.40.
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, 110 reproduced as ‘Petworth: a room with bookshelves and a rococo pier-glass, with several figures’.
1982
Guy Weelan, J.M.W. Turner, trans. I. Mark Paris, New York 1982, p.78, pl.83.
1983
Lindsay Stainton and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid 1983, no.50 reproduced.
1986
Haruki Yaegashi, Martin Butlin, Evelyn Joll and others, Turner Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo 1986, p.112 under no.34 [cited incorrectly as ‘CCLIV’].
1989
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner at Petworth: Painter and Patron, London 1989, pp. 142, 143, 160 pl.10.
1990
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner: Les Années Egremont: Chefs d’oeuvre inédits, trans. Tamara Préaud, Paris 1990, pl.10.
2002
Christopher Rowell, Ian Warrell and David Blayney Brown, Turner at Petworth, exhibition catalogue, Petworth House, Petworth 2002, pp.112 fig.109, 194 under no.48.
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 is Petworth’s White Library, a well-used drawing room in which guests gathered both before and after dinner; for more information about Turner’s numerous studies of this room, see the entry for Tate D22678 (Turner Bequest CCXLIV 16). The present study captures the room’s role as a hub for social interaction at Petworth, with the white bookshelves and glinting Rococo mirror forming a backdrop for a large group of seated figures, each of whom is only very loosely indicated by Turner with a combination of pale gouache and dark watercolour strokes.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘9 | c’ near centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXLIV 24’.
Elizabeth Jacklin
February 2019
How to cite
Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Petworth House: The White Library, with Bookshelves and a Rococo Pier–Glass, and Several Figures 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