In 1827 the painter J.M.W. Turner paid a long visit to his friend and patron Lord Egremont at the country house in West Sussex known as Petworth. The picture gallery at Petworth (above) was sketched by Turner in gouache.
Several of the 1827 sketches show the artist himself at work inside Petworth House, with family members posing for pictures, participating in their creation, or admiring the finished work.
Below, a selection of Petworth bedrooms as Turner observed them, both occupied and empty.
My own uninformed theory is that the painter himself occupied the bedroom with yellow hangings (below).
The final image
– painted in flesh-like, almost concupiscent tones of pink
– is called S
tudy of bed-curtains.
All images from the Turner Bequest at the
Tate Gallery.
