A painter’s garden: J.M.W. Turner online at Richmond upon Thames

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.