Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
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>
Destruction Sodom
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
actions: expressive
adults
architecture
Bible: Old Testament
birth to death
body
corpse
crushed
death
destruction
Destruction of Sodom
diseases and conditions
emotions, concepts and ideas
figure
fleeing
Genesis, chapter 19
Lot
Lot’s wife - pillar of salt
mythical, religious, fictional
people
places
religion and belief
religious
ruins
society
Sodom
symbols and personifications
townscape
transformation
universal concepts
<p>Turner was 30 when he painted this ambitious historical landscape. It shows his admiration for the grand art of the 17th-century painter, Nicolas Poussin, which he had studied in the Louvre during his visit to Paris in 1802. The subject is from the Biblical Book of Genesis. It shows Lot and his two daughters (to the right) fleeing the city of Sodom as ‘the Lord rained brimstone and fire’ in divine retribution for the sins of its citizens. Lot’s wife (on the right of the group) is being turned into a pillar of salt as she turns to look back.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
5 March 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
5 March 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
2001-03-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-03-05
Painting Landscape and History [TB CL2002]
Collection based display
25 April 2001 – 29 July 2001
2001-07-29
25 April 2001 – 30 July 2001
2001-07-30
2001-04-25
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-04-25
House and Studio
Collection based display
5 August 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-08-05
Turner at Tate Britain
Collection based display
28 May 2007 – 27 July 2009
2009-07-27
28 May 2007
2007-05-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-05-28
A Turner Gallery
Collection based display
12 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
12 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
2009-08-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-12
Among the Immortals
Collection based display
11 September 2019 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
11 September 2019 – 16 February 2020
2020-02-16
2019-09-11
Musée du Luxembourg (Paris, France)
29 February 2020 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
2020-02-29
External
2019-09-11
Gainsborough to Turner: The Golden Age of English Painting
Loan-out
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 101
Collection based display
The Destruction of Sodom
support: 1460 × 2375 mm
frame: 1845 × 2765 × 205 mm
weight: 112 kg
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>Turner was 30 when he painted this ambitious historical landscape. It shows his admiration for the grand art of the 17th-century painter, Nicolas Poussin, which he had studied in the Louvre during his visit to Paris in 1802. The subject is from the Biblical Book of Genesis. It shows Lot and his two daughters (to the right) fleeing the city of Sodom as ‘the Lord rained brimstone and fire’ in divine retribution for the sins of its citizens. Lot’s wife (on the right of the group) is being turned into a pillar of salt as she turns to look back.</p>
</div>

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2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>56. </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-destruction-of-sodom-n00474" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00474</span></a>]<b> The Destruction of Sodom</b> Exh. 1805?
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (474)
<br/>Canvas, 57 1/2 × 93 1/2 (146 × 237·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (64, ‘Destruction of Sodom’ 7'10" × 4'10"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> ?Turner's gallery 1805; Tate Gallery 1931 (22); Tate Gallery 1959 (345).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, p. 266; 1877, p. 423; Armstrong 1902, p. 232; MacColl 1920, p. 5; Davies 1946, p. 187; Finberg 1961, pp. 113, 118, 171; Ziff 1963, p. 320; Kitson 1964, pp. 13–15, detail repr. in colour p. 24; Lindsay 1966, p. 87; Ziff 1980, p. 168.</p>
<p></p>
<p>An illustration to Genesis xix, 24–6. On the right Lot and his daughters are shown fleeing the city; MacColl also identifies Lot's wife as a pillar of salt behind them.
<br/>
<br/>The picture was possibly exhibited at Turner's own gallery in 1805 though there is no evidence of this; no list of his exhibits in this year had been traced. In a note of <i>c.</i> 1810 <i>Sodom</i>
is included in a list of unsold pictures and valued at £400 (CXXII–36). The sketchbook is watermarked 1804 or 1801 but contains notes dated 1809, 1810, 1812, 1813 and 1814; the list referred to faces a page apparently dated 1809 (see also No. 53). Thornbury dates the picture ‘about 1805’ and the style fits such a dating. Ziff (1963) calls attention to a <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> sketch in the ‘Calais Pier’ sketchbook (LXXXI–5) but the composition is not the same. He also draws attention to one of the several <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> studies in the same book, p. 17, but this is not particularly relevant, though no doubt all of these studies played their part in Turner's large figure compositions. One of the studies of groups of figures, on p. 158, is fairly close to the group on the right of 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/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>, but in 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/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> the leading figure is an angel with wings.</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
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive adults architecture Bible: Old Testament birth to death body corpse crushed death destruction Destruction of Sodom diseases and conditions emotions, concepts and ideas figure fleeing Genesis, chapter 19 Lot Lot’s wife - pillar of salt mythical, religious, fictional people places religion and belief religious ruins society Sodom symbols and personifications townscape transformation universal concepts