Petworth Park: Tillington Church in the Distance

Petworth Park: Tillington Church in the Distance, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1828, is one of the most luminous and atmospheric of the Petworth landscapes that Turner produced during his residencies with the Earl of Egremont at his Sussex estate. Egremont had given Turner a permanent studio at Petworth and complete artistic freedom — an arrangement unique in Turner's career — and the Petworth paintings of the late 1820s and 1830s are among his most freely experimental works, produced outside the commercial and reputational pressures of the exhibition circuit. The view across the park toward the village church of Tillington — whose distinctive crown spire is visible in the distance — gives Turner the broad, open English landscape composition he used to explore the relationship between atmospheric light and the specific qualities of Sussex autumn afternoon light. The park's deer, the golden grass, and the pale church spire dissolving into an enormous sky constitute one of the most complete statements of his vision of the English pastoral as pure luminosity.

The landscape demonstrates Turner's mature atmospheric style, with luminous, dissolving forms and the golden light that characterizes his Petworth paintings.