Viva Brighton Issue #39 May 2016

BITS AND BOBS
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SECRETS OF THE PAVILION:
TURNER’S VISION OF BRIGHTON IN 1824
This exquisite watercolour my JMW
Turner entered the collection of Brighton
Museum only a few years ago. It had been
in private hands since first bought in the
1830s, and came up at an auction in New
York in 2012. We were able to purchase
it with generous help from the Art Fund,
the Heritage Lottery Fund and private
patrons. It was of utmost importance to secure
this gem, as it is one of the few paintings
by Turner that shows the Royal Pavilion.
The palace is only faintly visible in
an oil painting commissioned by the Third
Earl of Egremont at Petworth House,
and in a few rough pencil sketches. In our
watercolour Turner took compositional
liberties for the sake of the ‘picturesque’
appeal of the image, for example turning
the Pavilion by c.90 degrees, to ensure the
whole of its east front can be seen.
Compared to other paintings of Brighton
by Turner our watercolour provides a
surprising amount of detail. Many buildings
can be identified, among them St
Nicholas Church, the Duke of York’s hotel
and Marine Parade. The most prominent
building is the recently finished Chain
Pier, a bold cast-iron structure, gleaming
in the sunlight and seemingly withstanding
strong waves. It pushes its way into
the composition with the confidence we
see a generation later in a number of other
great cast-iron structures, such as railway
bridges and stations.
The reason for this detailed rendering and
the painting’s relatively small size is that it
was meant to be engraved. The print was used in Picturesque
Views of the Southern Coast of England, an important
topographical publication by George and William Cooke.
It was published in 16 parts between 1814 and 1826, with
Turner contributing 39 images. George Cooke engraved the
watercolour and entitled it Brighthelmstone, Sussex, using
the old name for Brighton.
The prints were also published individually and it is still
relatively easy to find a later print of the engraving, as it
remained popular and was reprinted throughout the 19th
century. The watercolour, however, disappeared from public
view until it was shown at Brighton Museum shortly after
we had purchased it. In 2013 it was the star of an exhibition
in the Royal Pavilion on Turner and Brighton, curated by
Ian Warrell. Because it is a watercolour it cannot be exposed
to light for very long and is not permanently on display, but
we occasionally offer gallery talks during which it can be
viewed. The shimmering painting is in demand: in 2017 it
will be lent to an exhibition at the Frick in New York, thus
briefly returning to where it appeared at auction in 2012.
Alexandra Loske, Art Historian and Curator at the Royal
Pavilion
A longer version of this article will appear on the official Royal
Pavilion & Museums blog at brightonmuseums.org.uk
Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A., Brighthelmston, Sussex,
c1824 © The Royal Pavilion & Museums
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