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Petworth House
The Square Bay
Turner's view of the gallery shows Flaxman's St Michael overcoming Satan
(1819-26) in the centre of the Square Bay, in fact just off-centre and towards
the north wall, where it is located on a unique ground plan of the 3rd Earl's
statue deployment drawn up in 1835 by H.W.Phillips, which has been used as
the basis of the present arrangement.
Apart from the Flaxman, the Square Bay has become a gallery of works by
the Irish sculptor J.E.Carew, many of which were placed here in 1835. The
archway at the entrance to the Square Bay is dominated by Carew's colossal
groups, Vulcan, Venus and Cupid, and Promethus and Pandora. The former is
shown in this position in Phillips's full-length portrait of the 3rd Earl,
and the latter has been brought into the gallery as the only suitable pendant.
Pictures
J.M.W.Turner, RA (1775-1851). Ships Bearing up for Anchorage. (The Egremont
Seapiece)
Possibly the first painting by Turner to enter the 3rd Earl's collection,
probably at the 1802 Royal Academy exhibition and certainly by 1805.
The numerous preliminary studies for this early masterpiece indicate Turner's
care to depict accurately 'ships sailing, coming up into the wind, shortening
sail and dropping anchor'. It is flanked by four other landscapes by
Turner:
Narcissus and Echo (exhibited 1804)
The Thames at Eton (exhibited 1808)
Cockermouth Castle (exhibited 1810)
The Forest of Bere (exhibited 1808)
William Owen, RA (1769-1825. Mrs Robinson
Shown hanging above the chimneypiece opposite in Turner's 'c.1827' view of the
gallery, this beautiful portrait of an unknown 'Mrs Robinson' shows the competence of this forgotten artist, who was portrait
painter to the Prince Regent.
Charles Robert Leslie, RA (1794-1859). Sancho and the Duchess
Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1824 and illustrating a scene from
Cervantes's novel Don Quixote.
Charles Robert Leslie, RA (1794-1859). Gulliver presented to the Queen
of Brobdignag
A scene from Swift's Gulliver's Travels, painted as a companion to Sancho
and the Duchess (above), and exhibited at the Royal academy in 1835.
William hilton, RA (1786-1839). The Rape of Europa
Painted in 1818 for Sir John Leicester, and bought by the 3rd
Earl at his sale in 1827 for 250 guineas. This was apparently Hilton's first
commission, the composition being perhaps inspired by Titian's Rape of Europa
(Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston).
Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA (1723-92). The Death of Cardinal Beaufort (Henry
V, Part II, Act III, Scene III
Painted in 1789 for Boydell's Sheakespeare Gallery, it depicts the death of
Cardinal Henry Beaufort (1377-1447), Chancellor of England, as Lords Warwick
and Salisbury and Henry VI look on. Reynolds is said to have used a coal-heaver
and an organ grinder as models for the Cardinal and the King.
Bought in 1805 by the 3rd Earl and in a ruined state due to Reynolds's use
of bitumen.
J.M.W.Turner, RA (1775-1851). Windsor, near Thames' Lock, exh. 1809
John Hoppner, RA (c.1758-1810). Sleeping Nymph with Cupid
Painted for Sir John Leicester in 1806 and bought at his sale in 1827 by the
3rd Earl. Hoppner is said to have considered it his masterpiece.
Sculpture:
John Flaxman, RA (1755-1826). St Michael overcoming Satan. Signed and dated
1826
This masterpiece, which would have inspired thoughts of Milton's Paradise
Lost, and for which the Square Bay was designed, is the 3rd Earl's supreme
sculptural commission. He later recorded that he gave Flaxman the order and the subject,
and the attitude according to the picture by Raphael (Louvre, Paris).
Ordered before June 1819 and finished in 1826, it was carved
(apart from the spear) from a single block of marble at a cost of £3,500.
John Edward Carew (1785-1868)
The remaining statues and busts are by this Irish sculptor and former assistant
to Sir Richard Westmacott, who was showered with commissions by the 3rd Earl
from 1823. The busts are;
The 3rd Earl of Egremont (1831-4)
Mrs John (Harriet) King (1831-4). The 3rd Earl's Daughter
General Sir Henry Wyndham (1830-2). The 3rd Earl's second son
Lord John Townshend (1830-2).
Venus, Vulcan and Cupid, c.1827/8-31
Carew stated that he began work on this colossal group 'about 1827 or 1828' and
that it was completed before 1831, but his assistant remembered that it was
made in London and finished by 1828, so the exact dates are unclear. It was
originally intended for this position, to which it was returned in 1992.
Vulcan, the god of fire and the blacksmith of the gods, is seated on his anvil
inscribed 'AITNA' (ie Etna. the Sicilian volcano - the word ''volcano'' derives
from Vulcan), resting his hammer. He is accompanied by his wife Venus, and
her son, Cupid, whose wings he forged.
Prometheus and Pandora, c.1835-7
Carew declared in 1837 that the Prometheus group 'was begun about two years
since' and it remained unfinished after the 3rd Earl's death in 1837. Carew
claimed £4,000 'when finished' in his unsuccessful court action against Egremont's
executors. In Greek mythology, Prometheus created the first man from clay,
stole fire from the gods to give to mankind, was punished by Jupiter and released
from his torment by Hercules.
His sister-in-law was Pandora, the 'all-gifted', who was fashioned from clay
by Vulcan. After Prometheus's theft of fire, Jupiter's retribution on mankind
was to open Pandora's box, thus releasing all the world's evils.
Only Hope remained inside.
The Falconer, c.1827/8-9
According to Carew's own testimony, it was certainly completed before his move from London to Brighton in 1831,
and was installed at Petworth in 1829. Unlike Carew's other ideal statues, it apparently has no literary or mythological
source; it may originally have been intended for the Duke of St Albans, who was Grand Falconer of England. In 1835 it
stood at the west end of the Central corridor, was moved into the Audit Room after c.1865, and returnedto the North Gallery
in 1992.
Adonis, 1823-5/6
The 'first commission Lord Egremont gave me' remembered Carew, as a companion to the Arethusa, which the 3rd Earl
bought in 1823. The Adonis is in fact on a larger scale and was valued by Carew at £1,500. Adonis, famous for his beauty,
is depicted in the throes of his fatal struggle with a boar.
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