Oil paint on canvas
Sussex, West
Sussex - non-specific
Turner general highlights
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>
Chichester Canal
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
architecture
boat - non-specific
canal
Chichester, Chichester Canal
England
England, South East
England, Southern
features
industrial
landscape
places
ship - non-specific
society
spire
sunset
Sussex - non-specific
Sussex, West
times of the day
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
wooded
<p>Turner’s first painting of Petworth, a palatial country house and estate inland from Chichester in West Sussex, was made following a visit in 1809. Its owner, the Earl of Egremont, supported contemporary artists and had already begun a major collection of Turner’s paintings. He stayed at Petworth again in 1827 and often until the Earl’s death in 1837, even being allocated a room for his studio. He began work on four paintings on a double-square format for specific positions in Petworth’s Carved Room, looking out towards the lake. These are three of the studies he made for the series.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
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
15 May 2004 – 16 May 2005
2005-05-16
15 May 2004 – 5 September 2004
2004-09-05
2004-05-15
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada)
http://www.ago.net
16 October 2004 – 16 January 2005
2005-01-16
2004-10-16
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
10 February 2005 – 16 May 2005
2005-05-16
2005-02-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-05-15
Turner Whistler Monet
Exhibition
19 August 2009 – 27 July 2010
2010-07-27
19 August 2009 – 27 July 2010
2010-07-27
2009-08-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-19
Landscape and Nation: Turner's Britain
Collection based display
9 December 2009 – 9 April 2013
2013-04-09
9 December 2009 – 9 April 2013
2013-04-09
2009-12-09
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-12-09
Colour and Line TG.111
Collection based display
1 May 2016 – 8 January 2017
2017-01-08
4 May 2016 – 18 September 2016
2016-09-18
2016-05-04
Caumont Art Centre (Aix-en-Provence, France)
7 October 2016 – 8 January 2017
2017-01-08
2016-10-07
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
2016-05-01
JMW Turner: From Shade and Darkness, to Light and Colour
Loan-out
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
12 November 2022 – 23 April 2023
2023-04-23
12 November 2022 – 23 April 2023
2023-04-23
2022-11-12
Pallant House Gallery (Chichester, UK)
2022-11-12
Chichester Canal
Loan-out
Chichester Canal
support: 654 × 1346 mm
frame: 932 × 1630 × 141 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
<p>Turner’s first painting of Petworth, a palatial country house and estate inland from Chichester in West Sussex, was made following a visit in 1809. Its owner, the Earl of Egremont, supported contemporary artists and had already begun a major collection of Turner’s paintings. He stayed at Petworth again in 1827 and often until the Earl’s death in 1837, even being allocated a room for his studio. He began work on four paintings on a double-square format for specific positions in Petworth’s Carved Room, looking out towards the lake. These are three of the studies he made for the series.
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
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>285. </b>[<span>N00560</span>]<b> Chichester Canal</b> <i>c.</i> 1828</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (560)</p>
<p>Canvas, 25 3/4 × 53 (65·5 × 134·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (? 100, ‘View near Chichester’, no dimensions given); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1914, returned to the National Gallery 1952, and to the Tate Gallery 1957.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Amsterdam 1936 (159); Paris 1938 (143, repr.); Amsterdam (repr.), Berne (repr.), Paris, Brussels (repr.), Liege (repr.) (30), Venice and Rome (34) 1947–8; R.A. 1974–5 (327, repr.); Leningrad and Moscow 1975–6 (29).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, p. 349; 1877, p. 467; Armstrong 1902, p. 219; Davies 1946, p. 188; Rothenstein 1949, p. 14, colour pl. 8; Herrmann 1963, p. 24, pl. 9; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, pp. 46–8, pl. 86; Gage 1969, p. 260 n. 91; Reynolds 1969, pp. 135–7, colour pl. 119; Gaunt 1971, p. 7, colour pl 25; Herrmann 1975, pp. 34, 231–2, colour pl. 109.</p>
<p>In the 1854 Schedule ‘Tillington’ has been added in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a>, perhaps in mistake for no. 99, <i>Scene at Petworth</i>, which was probably No. 283 [<span>N00559</span>].</p>
<p>As in the case of the Chain Pier at Brighton (see No. 286 [<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>]) Lord Egremont was financially involved in the construction of Chichester Canal (see No. 290 [<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-t03885" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T03885</span></a>]). For an earlier version of this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> see No. 282 [<span>N05563</span>]. Perhaps because of this earlier version this was the least altered of the Petworth sketches when Turner came to paint his final version for Petworth (No. 290 [<span>T03885</span>]), though in the latter the great arch of the sky has been softened.</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
architecture boat - non-specific canal Chichester, Chichester Canal England England, South East England, Southern features industrial landscape places ship - non-specific society spire sunset Sussex - non-specific Sussex, West times of the day transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions wooded