Visiting Petworth in Mr Turner’s company

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Sue Ecclestone took a trip to Petworth House to see an exhibition inspired by the film Mr. Turner

If you have already seen Mr. Turner, the film by Mike Leigh, you may be wondering whether you should visit Petworth House in Sussex and see the exhibition inspired by Leigh’s movie. If you have not seen the film, you will almost certainly be driven to seek it out after a visit to the country house where Turner stayed on many occasions while painting commissions for the 3rd Earl of Egremont.

Both the film and the exhibition are, of course, based on the life and work of the British artist J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851). While director Mike Leigh has been at pains to point out that Mr. Turner is a movie not a documentary, those that worked on the film were, nonetheless, painstaking in their research of Turner’s life and career, and the socio-political environment in which he lived. Petworth and the patronage of  LordEgremont featured significantly in Turner’s career.

While most of the locations in Mr. Turner were substitutes for the real thing (spoiler alert), Cornwell doubled for Margate and Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire doubled for The Royal Academy, the scenes at Petworth were genuine and the crew spent a week filming at the stately home.

One room at Petworth that is unmistakeably recognizable in the film forms the pièce de résistance oftheexhibition at Petworth House, curated by Andrew Loukes. The Old Library on the first floor of the house has a large east-facing window and was given over by Lord Egremont to visiting artists for use as a painting studio. Turner produced a number of watercolours during a stay in 1827 that depict the visiting painters working in the makeshift studio and in the film Leigh reproduces one such scene that makes Turner, played by Timothy Spall, the artist in his own painting. The original painting by Turner, which shows an artist painting three ladies – The Old Library, with an Artist and his Admirers (1827) – is part of this exhibition.

‘Mr. Turner – an Exhibition’ starts on the ground floor of Petworth’s Church Lodge Annexe where a number of Turner’s works from Petworth’s collection, and others kindly lent by the Tate and private collectors, are on view along with some of Turner’s personal artefacts.

The exhibition then continues across the courtyard and into the main house, beginning in the North Gallery where a number of Turners can be seen in the same positions they have occupied since they were painted. This room leads into a smaller room where costumes from the film are displayed and then onto the Carved Room which also has Turner paintings displayed where they have been since the early 19th century. From here the visitor moves into a room containing a short film on the making of Mr. Turner including interviews with the director, cast, Jacqueline Riding, who was the art historian and historical consultant on the film, and cinematographer Dick Pope.

The exhibition continues up to the first floor and the Old Library where Turner and his colleagues worked. Here one can view paintings and props connected with the film including a full-scale copy of Turner’s Snowstorm, Steamboat off Harbour’s Mouth (1840) painted by Timothy Spall. Also on display are the drawing and paintings done by Spall during his lessons with professional artist Tim Wright, alongside four portraits of cast members painted by Wright. There are also the copies of the Turner pictures that were painted by artist Charlie Cobb for use in the film.

A very informative catalogue to the exhibition is available, with a foreword by Mike Leigh describing the realization of the film through Petworth’s involvement. There is also a section by Jacqueline Riding which provides a fascinating insight into the making of the movie and the history of the artist through a description of the process that the cast and crew went through to recreate the life of Turner. The remainder of the catalogue, written by the curator Andrew Loukes, takes the visitor through Turner’s life and career in neatly divided sections from ‘Portraying Turner’ to ‘The Restless Traveller’to ‘Teaching Mr. Turner’(a reference to Spall learning to paint for his role in the film). Other sections cover Turner’s time at Petworth, Margate and Chelsea as well as focussing on his technique and his interest in natural philosophy.

This exhibition does not have a huge number of Turner’s on display in comparison with the ‘Late Turner – Painting Set Free’exhibition at Tate Britain (until 25 January 2015), so please don’t go along to Petworth expecting a display of that nature. What makes Petworth’s exhibition remarkable, however, is the full-circle connection between Turner, Petworth and the Mike Leigh film: to be in the exact environment in which Turner painted, to see the views that he depicted and then see the paintings in the positions they have always been is extraordinary. Add to that the way that the film animates both Turner’s personal life and career, and Petworth’s involvement in that career, and you have an exceptional exhibition. ‘Mr. Turner – An Exhibition’ puts Mr. Turner the film into a wonderful rich context and vice versa; inspired by this exhibition I intend to see the movie again