Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Decade 1800-1810
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>
Battle Trafalgar as Seen Mizen Starboard Shrouds Victory
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
battle
group
groups
history
man
mast
military
military
Napoleonic Wars, 1796-1815
natural phenomena
objects
people
rigging
sail
sailor
ship, warship
ship, warship, ‘HMS Victory’
smoke
society
Trafalgar, Battle, 21 October 1805
transport: water
weapon, firing / explosion
weapons
work and occupations
<p>This painting was praised as the first ‘British epic picture’ because it combines key moments of the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) in one composition. At bottom left British naval leader Horatio Nelson collapses on the Victory’s deck, shot by a French sniper seen high up in the right-hand ship’s crows’ nest. French flags are lowered, conceding defeat. These moments are set within a wider view of the claustrophobic, smoke-filled combat zone. Trafalgar was a bittersweet moment for Britain. Celebration of victory over the French and Spanish navies mixed with grief over the death of naval hero Nelson.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
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
24 October 2001 – 11 July 2005
2005-07-11
24 October 2001
2001-10-24
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-10-24
Making British History
Collection based display
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
19 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
19 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
2009-08-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-19
War and Peace
Collection based display
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
21 April 2012 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
21 April 2012 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
2012-04-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-21
Turner Exhibited
Collection based display
28 October 2020 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
28 October 2020 – 12 September 2021
2021-09-12
2020-10-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
17 October 2021 – 6 February 2022
2022-02-06
2021-10-17
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
27 March 2022 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
2022-03-27
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
http://www.mfa.org
2020-10-28
Turner's Modern World
Exhibition
17 October 2021 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
17 October 2021 – 6 February 2022
2022-02-06
2021-10-17
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
27 March 2022 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
2022-03-27
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
http://www.mfa.org
2021-10-17
Turner's Modern World
Loan-out
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 106
Collection based display
The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory
support: 1708 × 2388 mm
frame: 2181 × 2860 × 190 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 was praised as the first ‘British epic picture’ because it combines key moments of the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) in one composition. At bottom left British naval leader Horatio Nelson collapses on the Victory’s deck, shot by a French sniper seen high up in the right-hand ship’s crows’ nest. French flags are lowered, conceding defeat. These moments are set within a wider view of the claustrophobic, smoke-filled combat zone. Trafalgar was a bittersweet moment for Britain. Celebration of victory over the French and Spanish navies mixed with grief over the death of naval hero Nelson.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>58. </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-battle-of-trafalgar-as-seen-from-the-mizen-starboard-shrouds-of-the-victory-n00480" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00480</span></a>]<b> The Battle of Trafalgar, as seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory</b> Exh. 1806; reworked 1808
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (480)
<br/>Canvas, 67 1/4 × 94 (171 × 239)
<br/>Signed ‘J M W Turner’ incised on bulwark bottom centre. (Plate 564)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (3, ‘Death of Nelson’ 7'10" × 5'8"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Turner's gallery 1806; B.I. 1808 (359); Tate Gallery 1931 (25); R.A. 1974–5 (84, repr.); on loan to the National Maritime Museum 1975–80.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Farington <i>Diary</i> 3 June 1806; Ruskin 1857 (1903–12, xiii, p. 170); Thornbury 1862, i, p. 291; 1877, p. 428; Eastlake 1895, i, p. 189; Bell 1901, p. 86 no. 112; Armstrong 1902, p. 233; Finberg 1910, pp. 53–4; MacColl 1920, p. 7; Davies 1946, p. 185; Clare 1951, pp. 38–40, repr. p. 43; Finberg 1961, pp. 121, 125, 141–2, 171, 414, 467 no. 99, 468 no. 112, pl. 12; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 30, pl. 31; Reynolds 1969, p. 66, pl. 46; Gaunt 1971, p. 9; Finley 1981, pp. 56–7, pl. 26.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The Battle of Trafalgar took place on 21 October 1805 and the <i>Victory</i>, bearing Nelson's body, anchored off Sheerness on 22 December. Turner made a special trip to sketch the <i>Victory</i> as she entered the Medway and subsequently made a large number of detailed studies on board the ship in the ‘Nelson’ sketchbook (LXXXIX). There are also two larger studies of the deck of the <i>Victory</i> in the British Museum (CXX-c, and the Vaughan Bequest CXXI-S, repr. exh. cat. R.A. 1974, p. 60 no. 96).
<br/>
<br/>Farington recorded on 3 June 1806 that ‘Turner's I went to and saw His picture of the Battle of Trafalgar. It appeared to me to be a very crude, unfinished performance, the figures miserably bad.’
<br/>
<br/>Perhaps because he had been so keen to show the picture as soon as possible after the event Turner seems to have felt the need to work on it further before exhibiting it again in 1808. According to the writer, probably John Landseer, of a long review in the <i>Review of Publications of Art</i> for 1808, ‘The picture appears more powerful both in respect 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/c/chiaroscuro" title="Glossary definition for 'Chiaroscuro'"><span>chiaroscuro</span></a> and colour than when we formerly saw it in Mr. Turner's gallery, and has evidently been since revised and very much improved by the author’. Describing the picture as ‘a <i>British epic picture</i>’ the writer called it ‘the <i>first</i> picture of the kind that has ever, to our knowledge, been exhibited’. ‘Mr. Turner ... has detailed the death of <i>his</i> hero, while he has suggested the whole of a great naval victory, which we believe has never before been successfully accomplished, if it has been before attempted, in a single picture.’
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<br/>This picture was priced at £400 in a note, probably of <i>c.</i> 1810, in Turner's ‘Finance’ sketchbook (CXXII–36; for the date see Nos. 53 and 56 [<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>]).</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
adults battle group groups history man mast military military Napoleonic Wars, 1796-1815 natural phenomena objects people rigging sail sailor ship, warship ship, warship, ‘HMS Victory’ smoke society Trafalgar, Battle, 21 October 1805 transport: water weapon, firing / explosion weapons work and occupations