Oil paint on wood
Hertfordshire
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Harvest Home
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
agriculture and fishing
animals: mammals
architecture
barn
barrel
basket
black
Cassiobury Park
child
children
crowd
dog - non-specific
domestic
door
drinking
eating
eating and drinking
England
England, East
England, Southern
ethnicity
fair
features
groups
harvesting
Hertfordshire
interiors
ladder
leisure and pastimes
man
music and entertainment
objects
people
places
seasons
servant
summer
tools and machinery
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK man-made landmarks
vessels and containers
woman
work and occupations
workspaces
<p>This unfinished painting probably depicts a harvest meal on the Earl of Essex's Hertfordshire estate, Cassiobury Park. The smartly dressed black man standing on the left of the composition is George Edward Doney, the Earl’s butler. The picture may have been commissioned by the Earl as a memorial to his much-loved servant, who had recently died. Turner’s drawing for the painting shows he originally planned an outdoor setting. He made notes about depicting ‘men half drunk’ and those waiting to be served looking ‘eager and cunning’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint wood
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
2001-06-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-06-18
From Studio to Gallery: Sketches in the Turner Bequest
Collection based display
8 July 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
Turner and Tourism in Britain
Collection based display
19 August 2009 – 27 July 2010
2010-07-27
19 August 2009 – 27 July 2010
2010-07-27
2009-08-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-19
Landscape and Nation: Turner's Britain
Collection based display
28 March 2012 – 14 October 2012
2012-10-14
28 March 2012 – 14 October 2012
2012-10-14
2012-03-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-03-28
Patrick Keiller
Collection based display
1 September 2020 – 20 November 2022
2022-11-20
1 September 2020
2020-09-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-09-01
Clore 103
Collection based display
Harvest Home
support: 905 × 1203 mm
frame: 1200 × 1490 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<div class="text">
<p>This unfinished painting probably depicts a harvest meal on the Earl of Essex's Hertfordshire estate, Cassiobury Park. The smartly dressed black man standing on the left of the composition is George Edward Doney, the Earl’s butler. The picture may have been commissioned by the Earl as a memorial to his much-loved servant, who had recently died. Turner’s drawing for the painting shows he originally planned an outdoor setting. He made notes about depicting ‘men half drunk’ and those waiting to be served looking ‘eager and cunning’.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-07-01T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>209. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-harvest-home-n00562" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00562</span></a>]<b> Harvest Home</b> c. 1809
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (562)
<br/>Oil, 35 5/8 × 47 1/2 (90·5 × 120·5) on pine, 35 5/8 × 48 5/16 (90·5 × 122·8); there is an additional strip of wood, unpainted, 7/16 (1·2) along the top edge.</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (260, ‘1 (Harvest Home) panel’ 4'0" × 3'0"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1905.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Tate Gallery 1931 (31).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, pp. 289, 349; 1877, pp. 425, 467; Eastlake 1895, i, pp. 188–9; Armstrong 1902, p. 222; MacColl 1920, p. 27; Davies 1946, p. 190; Gage 1980, p. 253; Marks 1981, pp. 357–9, pl. 11.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Probably the picture seen by Elizabeth Rigby, later Lady Eastlake, in Turner's studio on 20 May 1846; ‘a picture in Wilkie's line—a harvest feast—painted the same year as Wilkie's ‘Rent Day’, and showing most astonishing powers and truth; but he [Turner] was disgusted at some remarks, and never finished it.’ Wilkie's <i>The Rent Day</i> is dated 1807 and was exhibited at the R.A. in 1809 (see exh. cat. <i>Sir David Wilkie R.A.</i> 1958, p. 15 no. 9). However, Arthur Marks follows Thornbury in suggesting that Turner was setting out to rival Wilkie's <i>Village Festival</i>, painted 1810–12 and one of the two main works in Wilkie's one-man show of 1812 rather than being shown, as had been hoped, at the Royal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a>. Marks points to the particular motif of the black man, seen on the left-hand side of both pictures, as well as the general similarities in subject and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>. He therefore suggests a dating for Turner's picture of c. 1812 rather than the c. 1809 suggested in the first edition of this catalogue.
<br/>
<br/>However, against these arguments for a later dating David Hill has discovered evidence that suggests that both this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> and No. 209a [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-cassiobury-park-reaping-n04663" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04663</span></a>] were intended for Lord Essex. A large composition sketch (CXX-C), in which the figures are set outdoors but which is accompanied by a long description of the incidents in the picture, is annotated ‘L<sup>d</sup>
Essex's Harvest Home’, and there is a companion sketch (CXX-D) for No. 209a.[<span>N04663</span>] David Hill suggests that the ‘remarks’ that caused this picture, and its companion, to remain unfinished were those made by Thomas Hearne about <i>Trout Fishing in the Dee</i> (No. 92, <i>q.v.</i>), which was exhibited in 1809.
<br/>
<br/>There are also a number of related <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> both for the composition and for individual figures or groups of figures in the ‘Harvest Home’ sketchbook (LXXXVI-2, 3, 4 <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/recto-verso" title="Glossary definition for 'Recto / Verso'"><span>verso</span></a>, 5 and 6).</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults agriculture and fishing animals: mammals architecture barn barrel basket black Cassiobury Park child children crowd dog - non-specific domestic door drinking eating eating and drinking England England, East England, Southern ethnicity fair features groups harvesting Hertfordshire interiors ladder leisure and pastimes man music and entertainment objects people places seasons servant summer tools and machinery UK counties UK countries and regions UK man-made landmarks vessels and containers woman work and occupations workspaces