J.M.W. Turner’s modest retreat, Sandycombe Lodge, near Twickenham, placed him close to an excellent source of food, the river Thames. Turner, who loved fishing, made the most of this, and captured some of the elements in his paintings.
Throughout his life, the great landscape painter J.M.W. Turner absorbed poetry, from the classics to the work of poets of his own time, and strove to write poetry himself.
As part of the Richmond Literature Festival, for the first time the stories of the historic houses and gardens of the Arcadian Thames have been brought together in one fine volume; the lost houses as well as those that have been saved.
In 1807 J.M.W. Turner acquired two plots of land in Sand Pit Close on the Twickenham side of the Thames, a short walk from Richmond Bridge. He would build his little villa, to his own designs, on the larger plot, overlooking a steeply sloping garden with a very large pond, and some evidence for the way it was laid out can be found in his sketchbooks. The house and once-large garden stood alone then, on the fringes of two grand estates, and provided a peaceful retreat from the busy hum of the London art world.
This talk explores the close relationship between Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) and his friend and fellow fisherman, the architect Sir John Soane (1753–1837). It looks specifically at Turner’s design for his suburban retreat at Twickenham and illustrates how Soane’s fascination for classical and Renaissance architecture helped Turner define its appearance and implied associations.