Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Walking in Turner's footsteps at Petworth House
SussexWorld
Follow
01/07/2025
The 250th anniversary of Turner’s birth is the perfect moment to explore his long and important association with Petworth House where he remains a key driver of visitors.
Category
😹
Fun
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
Good afternoon. My name is Phil Fewick, Greek arts editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely
00:06
to speak to Emily Knight, property curator at Petworth House, about a fantastic sounding
00:11
exhibition about Turner, about what else could it possibly be? And as you were saying so
00:16
interestingly, there are very few places you can go and get the sense of standing in Turner's
00:22
footsteps, standing where he stood. And that's what you gave at the Petworth House, isn't
00:27
it? Yeah, exactly right. He came to Petworth many times in the early 19th century, and he
00:35
was inspired by the landscape. He made many studies of it. And most significantly, with
00:40
his commission to paint four landscapes for the carved room, when you stand in the room
00:45
today, you can look out the window and see Capability Brown's design landscape and turn
00:50
around and see Turner's interpretation of it. So it's a very immersive experience that you
00:55
don't really get in quite the same way anywhere else.
00:58
Obviously, there are a number of things that kept him coming back, not least a benevolent
01:02
benefactor and the patron. But what did Petworth mean to him, do you think?
01:09
I think at Petworth, he had a kind of freedom that was hard to come by elsewhere. At this time,
01:16
the Sardile of Agriment was a passionate collector of contemporary British art. And he opened his
01:22
doors to many contemporary artists. So we think about it a bit like a satellite academy
01:29
of the British art world, where artists were coming together, they were studying a phenomenal
01:34
collection of art, they could explore the landscape and take inspiration from it. So I think for
01:39
Turner, it was, yeah, that ability to explore, ability to experiment. He made many, many sketches
01:47
of the park. And you can see him experimenting with materials, exploring different ways of capturing
01:53
effects of light on water. And so at Petworth, he could do all of that. He had all these amazing
01:59
resources at his fingertips.
02:00
It sounds brilliant. And the spur for the exhibition is the 250th anniversary of his birth,
02:07
which is a great moment to reflect and reconsider, isn't it?
02:10
Yeah, it's wonderful to take an anniversary like this as the opportunity to celebrate, you know, one of the
02:18
nation's favourite artists. There's a ton of activity happening all over the country. But here, again, we just,
02:26
we tell a very specific story to Petworth and how important it was to him as an artist.
02:31
Absolutely. So by the end of the exhibition, what do you hope it will achieve?
02:35
I hope that people will think about his work at Petworth beyond the oil paintings that hang in
02:44
the house, wonderful as they are. He produced many works on paper, watercolour, drawings, prints,
02:51
and we've got a range of different types of media in the exhibition. So I hope it deepens people's
02:56
understanding of who he was as an artist and how he experimented with those different media while he
03:03
was at Petworth. And it's a lovely link, isn't it? I wouldn't say that Petworth and Turner are
03:06
synonymous, but absolutely associated, aren't they? Definitely. It's the, it's the, he's a really
03:13
important artist to us. It's what brings a lot of visitors to Petworth. And the landscape continues
03:19
to inspire people. Within the exhibition, we have another layer of interpretation where we've asked
03:24
five contributors who know the landscape really well to write personal reflections about some of the
03:29
views that are represented in the exhibition. And it just provides a really nice way of showing
03:36
how sort of alive the landscape still is, how important it continues to be, and how looking
03:42
at the work of Turner can be a good way to sort of think about our own experiences of the landscape
03:47
today. Fantastic. Well, it sounds absolutely the perfect way to celebrate the 250th anniversary's
03:53
birth. It's really lovely to speak to you. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
Recommended
4:22
|
Up next
Petworth House - celebrating the magic of Christmas
SussexWorld
29/11/2024
4:36
VIDEO: The new Petworth House exhibition - in conversation with Phil Hewitt/SussexWorld
SussexWorld
03/03/2023
6:48
Petworth show explores both sides of Andy Warhol
SussexWorld
07/07/2025
5:56
Petworth Literary Festival launches on back of doubled audiences
SussexWorld
10/10/2024
0:51
Beautiful autumnal scenes at National Trust's Petworth Park
SussexWorld
09/11/2022
4:52
Tarring Manor, Caring Homes' new home in Worthing, is officially opened by Worthing West MP Sir Peter Bottomley
SussexWorld
11/03/2024
4:50
A look inside The Wentworth weeks out from the grand opening
Central Western Daily
25/06/2024
0:33
Popular barber retires after 41 years in the West Sussex village of Petworth
SussexWorld
21/03/2024
5:42
WATCH: Petworth Festival unveils summer programme 2023
SussexWorld
09/05/2023
4:04
Great line-up at this year's Petworth Festival
SussexWorld
08/07/2025
0:58
Bull in a flip-flop shop
NationalWorld.com
today
0:34
Dad told off for wearing gorilla costume to school
NationalWorld.com
today
1:57
Upper Austria
NationalWorld.com
yesterday
11:56
Pompey Talk - Callum Lang
The News, Portsmouth
yesterday
0:24
Bob Geldof spotted in Ryanair check-in queue
National World - Viral Videos
yesterday
0:41
Oliver Bonas Video
The News, Portsmouth
2 days ago
0:43
SailGP event in Southsea
The News, Portsmouth
3 days ago
0:26
Red panda cubs at West Midlands Safari Park
National World - Viral Videos
5 days ago
0:29
Sunbed dash at Crete hotel
National World - Viral Videos
15/07/2025
2:11
Sussex World Morning Update 22 July, 2025
SussexWorld
today
4:34
Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra promises “irresistibly fresh and entertaining" season
SussexWorld
yesterday
8:17
Day Three at The Highdown Big Dig, uncovering history at Highdown Hill in Worthing
SussexWorld
yesterday
0:26
New patisserie opens in Worthing
SussexWorld
yesterday
0:39
Domino's robot dog trial in Eastbourne
SussexWorld
yesterday
2:32
Sussex World Morning Update 21 July, 2025
SussexWorld
yesterday