J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner Petworth House: The Lady in Pink, in Conversation in the White Library 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Petworth House: The Lady in Pink, in Conversation in the White Library
1827
February 2019Petworth House: The Lady in Pink, in Conversation in the White Library 1827
D22688
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 26
Turner Bequest CCXLIV 26
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 141 x 194 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 26’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIV 26’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
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’).
1952
Internationale tentoonstelling de aquarel, 1800–1950, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft, March–May 1952.
1963
Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, September–October 1963, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, November, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1963–January 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January–March, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, March–April, Brooklyn Museum, New York, May, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June–July 1964 (33).
1965
[Display of watercolours from the Turner Bequest], Tate Gallery, London, ? – [?]March 1965 (no catalogue, as ‘The lady in pink: an interior with figures’).
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).
1972
The Art of Drawing, exhibition catalogue, British Museum, London, October 1972–[?] (334b).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (350).
1975
Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis’, risunok, akvarel’, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, October–November 1975, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, December 1975–January 1976 (40).
1976
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, February–May 1976 (50).
1976
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, May–July 1976 (72).
1978
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Lent by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, January–June 1978 (no catalogue, as ‘Petworth’).
1979
Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth August–October 1979 (no catalogue).
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 (36).
1983
J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (169).
2002
Turner at Petworth, Petworth House, Petworth, July–September 2002 (52).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.744, CCXLIV 26, as ‘The lady in pink; an interior, with figures’.
1939
Camille Mauclair, Turner, trans. Eveline Byam Shaw, London and Toronto 1939, p.158 reproduced.
1949
Kenneth Clark, ‘Turner at Petworth’, Ambassador, no.8, 1949, p.83 pl.9, as ‘After Dinner’.
1952
Internationale tentoonstelling de aquarel, 1800–1950, exhibition catalogue, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft 1952 (catalogue not seen) as ‘Petworth House: Interior with figures’.
1963
Edward Croft-Murray, Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1963, no.33 as ‘Petworth, Conversation in the Library’.
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, p.10.
1972
E[dward] C[roft]-M[urray], G. de Sieveking, John Picton and others, The Art of Drawing, exhibition catalogue, British Museum, London 1972, no.334b, one of three ‘Petworth Impressions’, as ‘Conversation in the Library’.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974 as ‘Petworth: a group of Figures seated in an Interior’.
1975
Andrew Wilton, Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London 1975, p.94 under no.143.
1975
Graham Reynolds, Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis’, risunok, akvarel’, exhibition catalogue, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad 1975, pp.13, 64 reproduced.
1975
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner’s Colour Sketches 1820–34, London 1975, p.55 reproduced.
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: A Group of Figures seated in an Interior’.
1976
Werner Hofmann, Andrew Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, no.72 reproduced, p.18.
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.36 reproduced as ‘Petworth: An Interior, with a Group of Seated Figures’.
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.169 reproduced.
1989
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner at Petworth: Painter and Patron, London 1989, pp.61, 70 note 1, 69, 142, 143, 175 pl.25.
1990
Martin Butlin, Mollie Luther and Ian Warrell, Turner: Les Années Egremont: Chefs d’oeuvre inédits, trans. Tamara Préaud, Paris 1990, pl.25.
2002
Christopher Rowell, Ian Warrell and David Blayney Brown, Turner at Petworth, exhibition catalogue, Petworth House, Petworth 2002, pp.115 fig.114, 194 under no.52.
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 study captures a group of guests, their figures languid, perhaps following their evening meal. The lighting is atmospheric, and conversation appears to be in progress in the case of the foreground figures. The figure seen set apart and reclining on right, who also appears elsewhere in the Petworth studies (see Tate D22739; Turner Bequest CCXLIV 77), has traditionally been associated with the artist George Jones, who visited Petworth regularly. However, as the art historian Ian Warrell has demonstrated, this appears impossible given that Jones was travelling on the continent at the time of Turner’s visit, which has been established with near certainty as taking place during the autumn of 1827 (see the overall Introduction for more information).1
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘10 | e’ near centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXLIV 26’ bottom left.
Elizabeth Jacklin
February 2019
How to cite
Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘February 2019Petworth House: The Lady in Pink, in Conversation in the White Library 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