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>
Angel Standing in Sun
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Abel
Adam
adults
angel
animals: birds
animals: reptiles
Apocalypse
Archangel Michael
astronomy
Bible: New Testament
Bible: Old Testament
bird - non-specific
creativity
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
Eve
group
groups
Heaven
Holofernes
Judaeo-Christian imagery
Judith
Last Judgement
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
man
objects
people
religion and belief
Revelation, chapter 19
Rogers, Samuel, ‘Voyage of Columbus’
snake
sun
sword
universal religious imagery
weapons
woman
<p>This painting, from late in Turner’s career, shows scenes from the Old Testament, the first section of the Bible. In In the centre, Archangel Michael appears with his flaming sword. In the foreground are scenes of murder and betrayal. Adam and Eve cry over the body of their son Abel (left), murdered by his brother, and Judith stands over the headless body of Holofernes (right), who she has decapitated. Turner's pessimistic picture seems to show death is everywhere. It has been suggested this reflects his concern about how his own life and art would be judged. In a message to his critics, he exhibited the picture with the words, 'the feast of vultures when the day is done.'</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
13 August 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
13 August 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
2001-08-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-08-13
Painting Landscape and History
Collection based display
3 November 2003 – 23 February 2004
2004-02-23
3 November 2003 – 23 February 2004
2004-02-23
2003-11-03
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
2003-11-03
The Origins of Abstraction
Loan-out
1 October 2007 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
1 October 2007 – 6 January 2008
2008-01-06
2007-10-01
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 February 2008 – 18 May 2008
2008-05-18
2008-02-10
Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, USA)
http://www.DallasMuseumofArt.org
23 June 2008 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
2008-06-23
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
2007-10-01
JMW Turner
Tate partnerships & programmes
21 September 2009 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 24 January 2010
2010-01-24
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2009-09-21
Turner and the Masters
Exhibition
22 February 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 3 January 2010
2010-01-03
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2010-02-22
Turner and the Masters
Loan-out
30 July 2010 – 15 April 2012
2012-04-15
30 July 2010 – 15 April 2012
2012-04-15
2010-07-30
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-07-30
Romantics
Collection based display
10 September 2014 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
10 September 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
2014-09-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
24 February 2015 – 24 May 2015
2015-05-24
2015-02-24
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
20 June 2015 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
2015-06-20
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.famsf.org
2014-09-10
Late Turner: Painting Set Free
Exhibition
24 February 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
24 February 2015 – 24 May 2015
2015-05-24
2015-02-24
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
20 June 2015 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
2015-06-20
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum
31 October 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
2015-10-31
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada)
http://www.ago.net
2015-02-24
Late Turner
Loan-out
1 August 2016 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
1 August 2016 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
2016-08-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2016-08-01
Clore 104 Turner exhibited
Collection based display
8 June 2021 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
8 July 2021 – 14 November 2021
2021-11-14
2021-07-08
Museum of Art Pudong (Shanghai, China)
20 December 2021 – 8 May 2022
2022-05-08
2021-12-20
Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
15 June 2022 – 13 November 2022
2022-11-13
2022-06-15
ACMI (Melbourne, Australia)
25 February 2023 – 25 June 2023
2023-06-25
2023-02-25
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
12 July 2023 – 2 October 2023
2023-10-02
2023-07-12
National Art Center (Tokyo, Japan)
26 October 2023 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
2023-10-26
Nakanoshima Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan)
2021-06-08
Light
Tate partnerships & programmes
The Angel Standing in the Sun
support: 787 × 787 mm
frame: 1035 × 1035 × 120 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 painting, from late in Turner’s career, shows scenes from the Old Testament, the first section of the Bible. In In the centre, Archangel Michael appears with his flaming sword. In the foreground are scenes of murder and betrayal. Adam and Eve cry over the body of their son Abel (left), murdered by his brother, and Judith stands over the headless body of Holofernes (right), who she has decapitated. <br/>Turner's pessimistic picture seems to show death is everywhere. It has been suggested this reflects his concern about how his own life and art would be judged. In a message to his critics, he exhibited the picture with the words, 'the feast of vultures when the day is done.'</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-07-01T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>425. </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-the-angel-standing-in-the-sun-n00550" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00550</span></a>]<b> The Angel standing in the Sun</b> Exh. 1846</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (550)</p>
<p>Canvas, 31 × 31 (78·5 × 78·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (45, ‘The Angel of the Sun’ 2'6 5/8" × 2'6 5/8"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1905.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1846 (411); New York 1966 (37, repr. p. 54); Edinburgh 1968 (17); R.A. 1974–5 (526, repr.).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Ruskin 1857 (1903–12, xiii, p. 167); Thornbury 1862, i, p. 349; 1877, p. 467; Bell 1901, pp. 155–6 no. 259; Armstrong 1902, p. 217; MacColl 1920, p. 25; Davies 1946, p. 186; Clare 1951, p. 117, repr.; Finberg 1961, pp. 413, 510 no. 577; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 72, pl. 128; Gowing 1966, p. 53, repr. p. 54; Lindsay 1966, pp. 180, 213; Gage 1969, pp. 145–6, 187, pl. 70; Reynolds 1969, pp. 158, 200–03, pl. 172; Holcomb 1970, pp. 27–8, pl. 15; Herrmann 1975, pp. 54, 235, pl. 181; Fehl 1976, pp. 128–9, pl. 20; Stuckey 1976, pp. 159–75, pl. 2; Paulson 1978, pp. 182–3, pl. 54; Finley 1979, pp. 685–95, pl. 8; Wallace 1979, pp. 114–15, pl. 17; Wilton 1979, pp. 165, 198–203, 216, 222, pl. 237; Paulson 1982, pp. 90–2, 94, 102–3, pl. 45.</p>
<p>Accompanied in the R.A. catalogue by the following passage from the <i>Book of Revelation</i>:</p>
<p>‘And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;</p>
<p>That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, both free and bond, both small and great’.—<i>Revelation</i>, xix., 17, 18.</p>
<p>and also a quotation from Samuel Rogers' <i>Voyage of Columbus</i>:</p>
<p>‘The morning march that flashes to the sun;
<br/>The feast of vultures when the day is done’-<i>Rogers</i>.</p>
<p>In the foreground Adam and Eve lament over the dead body of Abel and Judith stands over the decapitated body of Holofernes, perhaps one of the captains mentioned in the quotation from <i>Revelation</i>. Samson and Delilah are also shown.</p>
<p>The chained serpent derives from <i>Revelation</i>xx, 1–2. Gage suggests that Turner has conflated the Angel of the Apocalypse with the Cherubim with flaming sword at the Gate of Paradise, enforcing the Expulsion of Adam and Eve. The passage from Samuel Rogers' fragmentary <i>Voyage of Columbus</i> from which Turner took his second quotation bears the subtitle ‘The Flight of an Angel of Darkness’, a conception, as Gage points out, in accord with Turner's growing pessimism. Turner's choice of subject may have been partly suggested by Ruskin's reference to him as ‘the great angel of the Apocalypse’ in <i>Modern Painters</i> i 1843 (1903–12, iii, p. 254; the reference was omitted from the third edn of 1846 onwards). There is also a possibility that Turner, in declining health, saw the picture as a summing up of his career. Already, the previous year, there had been a suggestion that he might give up exhibiting (see No. 414 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-whalers-n00545" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00545</span></a>]).</p>
<p>Charles Stuckey also sees this picture, like its companion <i>Undine</i> (No. 424 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-undine-giving-the-ring-to-massaniello-fisherman-of-naples-n00549" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00549</span></a>]), as in part an attack on Eagles, the vultures in the quotation from Rogers being, of course, critics. Rogers's poem ends with Columbus seeing a vision of an angel who tells him that his work is done and in this picture Turner sees himself, in contrast to the humble fisherman of the companion picture, as the archangel Michael (who is associated with the rainbow) standing for truth and justice while the small Old Testament scenes reflect Turner's attacks at the hands of not only the critics but also his mother and 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>; he had been disappointed at not becoming President of the Royal Academy the previous summer.</p>
<p>This picture and <i>Undine</i> (No. 424 [<span>N00549</span>]) provoked the usual lament from the <i>Athenaeum</i> for 9 May 1846: ‘That there is art in them, consummate art, in reconciling to the eye such effusions of all the strongest and most opposing colours of the palette, we freely admit: but we as freely declare our regret, that over such aberrations of talent no controlling influence exerts its genial restraint’. The <i>Spectator</i> for the same date had more, though qualified, praise, calling them ‘tours de force that show how nearly the gross materials of the palette can be made to emulate the source of light-of the figures we can only say that Turner seems to have taken leave of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>form</span></a> altogether’. For <i>The Times</i> of 6 May ‘The “Angel standing in the Sun” is a truly gorgeous creation... It is all very well to treat Turner's pictures as jests; but things like these are too magnificent for jokes; and the readers of the <i>Oxford Graduate</i> know that many of these obscurities are not altogether unaccountable’—the reference is to the first volume of Ruskin's <i>Modern Painters</i>, published anonymously in 1843. Ruskin, however, writing some twelve years later, passed over the two pictures as ‘painted in the period of decline’, with ‘the <i>distinctive</i> characters in the execution, indicative of mental disease; though in reality these characters are so trenchant that the time of fatal change may be brought within a limit of three or four months, towards the close of the year 1845’.</p>
<p>The picture has suffered from some overcleaning in the past, and also from the discoloration of the meguilp <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/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>medium</span></a> in some of the whites.</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
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
Abel Adam adults angel animals: birds animals: reptiles Apocalypse Archangel Michael astronomy Bible: New Testament Bible: Old Testament bird - non-specific creativity emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas Eve group groups Heaven Holofernes Judaeo-Christian imagery Judith Last Judgement literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) man objects people religion and belief Revelation, chapter 19 Rogers, Samuel, ‘Voyage of Columbus’ snake sun sword universal religious imagery weapons woman