This England

Joseph Mallord William
Turner (1775-1851) was not
only one of Britain’s finest
landscape painters but was also
a talented if embryonic architect.
In later life he once opined that,
had he to live his life again, he
would emphatically embrace an
architectural career rather than
that of a painter, so keen was
his interest in the subject. It thus
seems only fitting that the recent
renovation of Sandycombe Lodge
(to be known as Turner’s House)
in Twickenham — which he
planned to his own specification
and built around 1812 — will now
stand as enduring testament to his
architectural ability and vision.
The £2.4 million restoration
funds necessary to bring Turner’s
house back to life were raised
due to a combination of support
from the Heritage Lottery Fund,
other funding bodies and generous
public donations. Opened to the public in July 2017, the
house, now stripped of its tall Victorian extensions and with its
stucco facade restored to the original brickwork, today closely
reflects how the house would have looked in Turner’s time,
restored to its former simplicity. Subsequent suburban sprawl
unfortunately means that Turner’s two-acre garden cannot
be authentically recreated in its entirety but it is intended
that a flavour of the original garden can be conveyed to
contemporary visitors so planting work here has recently begun
in preparation for 2018.
Turner’s career was in the ascendant at the time he began
seeking a country retreat in the early 19th century. He once
said “I know of no genius but the genius of hard work”, and
Turner’s House
After a £2.4 million restoration, the
country retreat of one of England’s
greatest artists is now open to the public
he had studiously pursued his
chosen craft for many years since
his early studies at the Royal
Academy school. He would
become renowned for elevating
landscape painting to the highest
echelons, a position that had
been formerly reserved for
historical art. “To select, combine
and concentrate that which is
beautiful in nature and admirable
in art is as much the business of
the landscape painter in his line
as in other departments of art,”
he once declared and his career
would exemplify this belief.
The affluent artist had acquired
land near Twickenham riverside
around 1807 and had long hoped
to find some congenial spot that
would offer respite from the
intense demands of his London
life. Owning a country retreat was
also an indisputable mark of a
man’s reputation and it is unlikely
that Turner, a Londoner who retained the strong cockney accent
of his youth, was oblivious to this.
His father, formerly a Covent Garden barber, had recently
retired and so the plan was for Turner and “Old Dad” as
William senior was usually known, to move together to
Twickenham. Their permanent base in the capital was never
relinquished though and the artist would return here after
Sandycombe was regretfully sold in 1826 possibly due to his
father’s failing health. Turner’s keen talent for design also
flourished in London as he opened a purpose-built gallery
“England: Richmond Hill on the Prince Regent’s Birthday” was exhibited
in 1819.
62 THIS ENGLAND, Winter, 2017