Oil paint on canvas
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>
Dawn Christianity
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
Bible: New Testament
figure
Flight into Egypt
landscape
Matthew, chapter 2
people
religion and belief
wooded
painting oil paint canvas
Studies for ‘Dawn of Christianity’
support: 1337 × 651 mm
frame: 1357 × 671 × 40 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
<p><b>441. </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-studies-for-dawn-of-christianity-n05508" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05508</span></a>]<b> Studies for ‘Dawn of Christianity’</b>
<i>c.</i> 1841</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5508)</p>
<p>Canvas, 52 5/8 × 25 5/8 (133·5 × 65)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (? 298<sup>x</sup>, ‘1—Canvas with beginnings of pictures’; identified 1946 by number ‘298’ on back); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1951.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, pp. 163, 191 n. 27; Butlin 1981, p. 45.</p>
<p>Only the 1856 Schedule included no. 298<sup>x</sup>, which was referred to as an extra picture found at Turner's studio in Queen Anne Street; for 298 see No. 45 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-landscape-with-windmill-and-rainbow-partly-after-gainsborough-n05489" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05489</span></a>].</p>
<p>The <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/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> seems originally to have been prepared for one of the Petworth <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscapes</span></a>, being similar in size and shape (see Nos. 283–91). Spoilt by water, it was subsequently used for six rough <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/monochrome" title="Glossary definition for 'Monochrome'"><span>monochrome</span></a> sketches in grey paint, most if not all working towards the <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> of <i>Dawn of Christianity (Flight into Egypt)</i>, exhibited in 1841 (No. 394). With the canvas used as an upright there is across the top a single landscape, flanked by trees. Below this are three related compositions, circular in composition like the exhibited picture. That on the left has a part-outline, following a circle, in the same grey paint as the sketch itself; the other two seem to have been circumscribed by scratching into the white ground. A further circular sketch, roughly framed in the same grey paint, was painted below but with the canvas the other way up; this contains a pyramidal feature that connects it more closely with the Egyptian setting of the finished oil, though in other respects it is less close in composition than are the sketches already mentioned. Finally, adjacent to this, there are rough indications of foliage, particularly close to the large tree on the left of the finished oil, with another feature further to the left.</p>
<p>The original canvas bears a duty stamp incorporating the apparent date of 1828 though the last digit is very difficult to read (see Butlin <i>loc. cit.</i>). This would, of course, support the suggestion that the canvas was originally prepared for one of the Petworth landscapes of <i>c.</i>
1828–9.</p>
<p><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
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults Bible: New Testament figure Flight into Egypt landscape Matthew, chapter 2 people religion and belief wooded