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>
Dinner in a Great Room with Figures in Costume
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
arch
architecture
dining room
domestic
features
figure
group
groups
interiors
people
<p>The influence of Rembrandt's dramatic effects of chiaroscuro on Turner can be readily appreciated in this unfinished painting. Turner had been impressed by Rembrandt's art since he had been a student, but many of the paintings he produced during the last years of the 1820s, and on into the 1830s, demonstrate his revived respect for the Dutch old master. The left hand side of this work seems to be indebted to a painting formerly thought to be by Rembrandt, which passed through the London art market in 1821; the small interior scene is now in the National Gallery. The costumes worn by the figures suggest that Turner may have intended to complete a historical subject.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
20 March 2009 – 3 August 2009
2009-08-03
20 March 2009 – 3 August 2009
2009-08-03
2009-03-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-03-20
The Space Inside: Turner's Interiors
Collection based display
Dinner in a Great Room with Figures in Costume
support: 908 × 1219 mm
frame: 1090 × 1400 × 90 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>The influence of Rembrandt's dramatic effects 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> on Turner can be readily appreciated in this unfinished <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>. Turner had been impressed by Rembrandt's art since he had been a student, but many of the paintings he produced during the last years of the 1820s, and on into the 1830s, demonstrate his revived respect for the Dutch old master. The left hand side of this work seems to be indebted to a painting formerly thought to be by Rembrandt, which passed through the London art market in 1821; the small interior scene is now in the National Gallery. The costumes worn by the figures suggest that Turner may have intended to complete a historical subject.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p>[from]<b> Nos. 444–9: Figure Subjects and Interiors associated with Petworth and East Cowes Castle, <i>c.</i> 1830–7</b></p>
<p>THESE works, none of which were exhibited by Turner, nor therefore given titles by him, have all been associated with Petworth since they were inventoried in the twentieth century, partly because of their similarity to the Petworth interiors with figures painted in body colour on blue <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/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> (CCXLIV) and partly because they relate to such exhibited pictures associated with Petworth as <i>Jessica, Lord Percy under Attainder</i> and <i>Watteau Study</i>
(Nos. 333 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-jessica-t03887" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T03887</span></a>], 338 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-lucy-countess-of-carlisle-and-dorothy-percys-visit-to-their-father-lord-percy-when-n00515" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00515</span></a>] and 340 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-watteau-study-by-fresnoys-rules-n00514" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00514</span></a>]). It has recently been discovered by Patrick Youngblood, however, that at least one of these <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>paintings</span></a>, that formerly known as <i>Music Party, Petworth</i> (No. 447 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-music-party-east-cowes-castle-n03550" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03550</span></a>]), shows an interior at East Cowes Castle. In fact the origins of this picture are even more complex; see the entry for this work. It is probably a mistake to attach these works too closely to any specific location, though Turner's imagination was clearly stimulated by the social life at these two houses in which, through his friendship with Lord Egremont and John Nash, he was particularly at home.</p>
<p>The dating of these works also depends on that of the paintings mentioned above, which were exhibited in 1830 and 1831, together with further scenes of figures in interiors such as <i>Pilate washing his Hands</i>, also exhibited in 1830 (No. 332 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-pilate-washing-his-hands-n00510" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00510</span></a>]), and <i>Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego</i>, exhibited in 1832 (No. 346 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-shadrach-meshach-and-abednego-in-the-burning-fiery-furnace-n00517" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00517</span></a>]). <i>Rembrandt's Daughter</i>, exhibited in 1827 (No. 238), and <i>Boccaccio</i>, exhibited the following year and also associated with East Cowes Castle (No. 244 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-boccaccio-relating-the-tale-of-the-bird-cage-n00507" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00507</span></a>]), are perhaps slightly less advanced in style than these unfinished interiors which seem to form a series painted over a number of years up to 1837, the year that Lord Egremont's death bought an end to Turner's association with Petworth (see under No. 449 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-interior-of-a-great-house-the-drawing-room-east-cowes-castle-n01988" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01988</span></a>]). All, save No. 444 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-a-lady-in-a-van-dyck-costume-n05511" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05511</span></a>], reflect a renewed interest in the work of Rembrandt, seen with Turner's own emphasis on light and colour.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, pp. 44–5; Gowing 1966, p. 36; Wilton 1979, pp. 208–10; Youngblood 1983, pp. 16–17.</p>
<p><b>445. </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-dinner-in-a-great-room-with-figures-in-costume-n05502" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05502</span></a>]<b> Dinner in a Great Room with Figures in Costume</b>
<i>c</i>. 1830–35</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5502)</p>
<p>Canvas, 35 3/4 × 48 (91 × 122)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Cardiff 1951; Tate Gallery 1959 (349); Australian tour 1960 (9); New York 1966 (13, repr. p. 59); Paris 1972 (269, repr.); R.A. 1974–5 (338); Leningrad and Moscow 1975–6 (32).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, p. 161; Gowing 1966, p. 36.</p>
<p>Formerly called ‘A Costume Piece’; the present title was given by Lawrence Gowing. Like Nos. 446 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-figures-in-a-building-n05496" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05496</span></a>] and 447 [<span>N03550</span>] this seems to have been inspired by the informal social life, with an element of dressing up, at Petworth under the third Earl of Egremont; see also No. 449 [<span>N01988</span>]. It is also one of the works most strongly influenced by Rembrandt, and therefore probably to be dated to the early or mid 1830s. In particular the figure silhouetted against a shaft of light on the left seems to reflect the early painting by Rembrandt formerly called ‘The Philosopher’ which seems to have passed through the London sale rooms twice in the 1790s and perhaps again in 1821 (National Gallery, London, no. 3214; see Neil Maclaren <i>National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School</i> 1960, p. 332).</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
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Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults arch architecture dining room domestic features figure group groups interiors people