Oil paint on canvas
Sussex, East
Sussex - non-specific
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Chain Pier Brighton
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
architecture
boat, rowing
boat, sailing
Brighton, Chain Pier
coast
England
England, South East
England, Southern
figure
people
pier
places
sea
seascapes and coasts
society
sunset
Sussex - non-specific
Sussex, East
times of the day
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
<p>The Chain Pier shown here had only recently been completed. Both Turner and John Constable painted pictures of this pier, which was the most visible sign of Brighton’s status as a centre for modern trade and tourism.</p><p>This is a version of one of the four compositions Turner painted for the Carved Room at Petworth in Sussex, the great house belonging to the Earl of Egremont. The unusually long format was used so that the pictures would fit under full-length portraits. The subjects of these pictures reflected Egremont’s interests in local agriculture and commerce</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
2001-06-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-06-18
From Studio to Gallery: Sketches in the Turner Bequest
Collection based display
4 July 2002 – 29 September 2002
2002-09-29
4 July 2002 – 29 September 2002
2002-09-29
2002-07-04
National Trust: Petworth House (Petworth, UK)
2002-07-04
Turner at Petworth
Loan-out
7 November 2003 – 8 February 2004
2004-02-08
7 November 2003 – 8 February 2004
2004-02-08
2003-11-07
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Birmingham, UK)
http://www.bmag.org.uk
2003-11-07
Turner's Britain
Loan-out
4 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
4 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
2004-09-04
Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen, Denmark)
2004-09-04
Turner and Constable and their European Contemporaries
Loan-out
26 May 2007 – 27 July 2009
2009-07-27
26 May 2007
2007-05-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-05-26
Picturing Nature: Oil Sketches 1790s-1820s
Collection based display
22 July 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
6 August 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
2010-08-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-07-22
Late Turner
Collection based display
14 April 2012 – 27 March 2013
2013-03-27
14 April 2012 – 27 March 2013
2013-03-27
2012-04-14
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-14
Constable / Turner
Collection based display
1 November 2013 – 28 February 2014
2014-02-28
1 November 2013 – 28 February 2014
2014-02-28
2013-11-01
Royal Pavilion & Museums (Brighton, UK)
2013-11-01
Brighton in the 1820s as perceived by Turner and his Contemporaries
Loan-out
30 July 2016 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
30 July 2016 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
2016-07-30
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2016-07-30
Clore 106 Sea Painter
Collection based display
28 October 2020 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
28 October 2020 – 12 September 2021
2021-09-12
2020-10-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
17 October 2021 – 6 February 2022
2022-02-06
2021-10-17
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
27 March 2022 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
2022-03-27
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
http://www.mfa.org
2020-10-28
Turner's Modern World
Exhibition
17 October 2021 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
17 October 2021 – 6 February 2022
2022-02-06
2021-10-17
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
27 March 2022 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
2022-03-27
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
http://www.mfa.org
2021-10-17
Turner's Modern World
Loan-out
The Chain Pier, Brighton
support: 711 × 1365 mm
frame: 1001 × 1662 × 124 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<div class="para1">
<span class="text9">The Chain Pier shown here had only</span><span class="text0"> recently been completed. Both Turner  </span><span class="text15">and      John Constable painted pictures of</span><span class="text0"> </span><span class="text9">this pier, which was the most visible </span><span class="text0">
</span><span class="text15">sign of Brighton’s status as a      centre for</span><span class="text0"> modern trade and tourism. </span>
</div>
<div class="para1">
<span class="text9">This is a version of one of the four compositions      Turner painted for the Carved Room at Petworth in Sussex,  the great house      belonging to the Earl </span><span class="text0">
</span><span class="text15">of Egremont. The unusually long format was used so that the      pictures would fit under full-length <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a>. The subjects  of these      pictures reflected Egremont’s </span><span class="text9">interests in      local agriculture and commerce</span><span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p>[from]<b> Nos. 282–91 : Petworth Landscapes, <i>c.</i> 1828–30</b></p>
<p>THESE fall into two groups, plus the separate <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> relating to the two versions of <i>Chichester Canal</i> (No. 282 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-lake-petworth-sunrise-n05563" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05563</span></a>]). The first group consists of the five works from the Turner Bequest now in the Tate Gallery (Nos. 283–7); the second of the four rather more finished pictures still at Petworth (Nos. 288–91). These latter works originally hung below full-length seventeenth-century <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> in the Grinling Gibbons panelled dining-room, and are more or less closely based on four of the Tate Gallery pictures, at least one of which seems originally to have hung in the place later occupied by one of the more finished pictures.</p>
<p>Although Turner had painted a view of Petworth House in 1810 (No. 113 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-petworth-sussex-the-seat-of-the-earl-of-egremont-dewy-morning-t03880" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T03880</span></a>]) and had sold a considerable number of pictures to Lord Egremont, he became a more frequent visitor to Petworth after the death of his father in 1829. In particular it is known that he stayed there from December 1830 to January 1831. Nearly all recent writers on Turner have followed Finberg in assuming that it was then that the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscapes</span></a> were painted, or at least begun. On the other hand, Collins Baker dates them <i>c.</i> 1829–30, with the exception of the <i>Brighton</i>, which he assigns definitely to 1830. MacColl, following earlier National Gallery catalogues, dates the sketches for <i>Petworth Park</i> and <i>Chichester Canal</i> (Nos. 283 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-petworth-park-tillington-church-in-the-distance-n00559" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00559</span></a>] and 285 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-chichester-canal-n00560" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00560</span></a>]) to 1829. Thornbury dates the <i>Petworth Park</i> even earlier, 1828.</p>
<p>In fact, the first known reference to the landscapes occurs in a letter from Thomas Creevey to Miss Ord of 18 August 1828, giving an account of his visit to Petworth on 16–17 August. After describing ‘the sixty foot dining room’ with its full-length portraits, he goes on, ‘Immense as these pictures are with all their garniture there are still <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panels</span></a> to spare, and as he [Lord Egremont] always has artists ready in the house, in one of these compartments, you have Petworth Park by Turner, in another Lord Egremont taking a walk with nine dogs, that are his constant companions, by the same artist ...’ The second of the pictures mentioned must be the Tate Gallery's <i>Petworth Park: Tillington Church in the Distance</i> (No. 283 [<span>N00559</span>]), the dogs in which are omitted from the more finished version at Petworth (No. 288 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-lake-petworth-sunset-fighting-bucks-t03883" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T03883</span></a>]). The other picture is presumably the Tate's <i>Lake, Petworth, Sunset</i> (No. 284 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-lake-petworth-sunset-sample-study-n02701" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02701</span></a>]), unless the more finished version (No. 289 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-lake-petworth-sunset-a-stag-drinking-t03884" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T03884</span></a>]) was already <i>in situ</i>.</p>
<p>John Gage has recently discovered that Turner was at Petworth in August 1827, and the landscapes may have been begun then. On the other hand, Gage has also suggested that the Tate Gallery pictures were begun in London and rejected because they turned out to be too large (1969, p. 260 n. 91), but Creevey's report makes this highly unlikely unless the pictures he saw were somehow only temporarily superimposed on the panels. In any case, the Tate pictures are not consistently larger than the final versions. It may therefore be that Lord Egremont, whose collection had hitherto been confined to Turner's earlier style, found the first set of pictures too sketchy in style; the history of <i>Palestrina</i> (No. 295 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-palestrina-composition-n06283" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06283</span></a>]) suggests another instance of Lord Egremont failing to appreciate Turner's mature work.</p>
<p>That Turner painted some if not all of the Petworth landscapes in the studio specially provided for him in the house is suggested by an anecdote in George Jones' manuscript <i>Recollections of Sir Francis Chantrey,</i> written in 1849: ‘When Turner painted a series of landscapes at Petworth, for the dining-room, he worked with his door locked against everybody but the master of the house. Chantrey was there at the time, and determined to see what Turner was doing; he imitated Lord Egremont's peculiar step, and the two distinct raps on the door by which his lordship was accustomed to announce himself: and the key being immediately turned, he slipped into the room before the artist could shut him out, which joke was mutually enjoyed by the two attached friends’ (reprinted in Finberg 1961, p. 325).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, p. 306; 1877, p. 439; Collins Baker 1920, pp. 124–5; MacColl 1920, p. 27; John Gore (ed.), <i>Creevey's life and Times: A Further Selection from the Correspondence of Thomas Creevey</i> 1934, p. 277; John Gore (ed.), <i>Creevey</i> 1948, p. 293; Finberg 1961, p. 325; Herrmann 1975, pp. 34, 231–2; Joll 1977, pp. 374–9; Young-blood 1983, p. 16.</p>
<p><b>286. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-chain-pier-brighton-n02064" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02064</span></a>]<b> The Chain Pier, Brighton</b> <i>c.</i> 1828</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (2064)</p>
<p>Canvas, 28 × 53 3/4 (71 × 136·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (one of 236 to 238, ‘Roll of 3 separate Canvasses Petworth Chain Pier and another’, no dimensions given); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1906.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Liverpool 1933 (47); Amsterdam 1936 (161, repr.); Rotterdam 1955 (55, repr.); R.A. 1974–5 (328).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, p. 306; 1877, p. 439; Davies 1946, p. 189 n. 21; Kitson 1964, p. 78, repr. p. 34; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, pp. 46–8, pl. 84; Gage 1969, p. 290 n. 91; Gaunt 1971, p. 7, pl. 32; Paulson 1982, p. 80, pl. 62.</p>
<p>The Chain Pier at Brighton, partly financed by Lord Egremont, was begun in 1822 and opened the following year. In the finished picture (No. 291 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-brighton-from-the-sea-t03886" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T03886</span></a>]) Turner added debris in the foreground.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture boat, rowing boat, sailing Brighton, Chain Pier coast England England, South East England, Southern figure people pier places sea seascapes and coasts society sunset Sussex, East Sussex - non-specific times of the day townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions