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>
Tenth Plague Egypt
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
architecture
baby
Bible: Old Testament
birth to death
children
city wall
countries and continents
crime and punishment
death
Egypt
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
execution
Exodus, chapter 12
grief
landscape
mourning
people
places
religion and belief
rocky
society
storm
Ten Plagues of Egypt
townscape
townscapes / man-made features
weather
woman
<p>This painting illustrates a passage from the Bible. It describes one of the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians by God as punishment for enslaving the Jewish people: the killing of all the first-born sons of the Egyptians. The dark clouds in the sky emphasise the power of forces beyond human’s control. Turner exhibited the picture just a couple of months after becoming a full member of the Royal Academy. Depictions of stories from the Bible and ancient Greek and Roman myth was seen by the Academy as the most important form of art. This was known as the ‘Grand Style’</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
24 June 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
24 June 2002 – 1 July 2003
2003-07-01
2002-06-24
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-06-24
Turner: Sublime Landscape
Collection based display
10 March 2003 – 12 July 2004
2004-07-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-03-10
Royal Academy
Collection based display
1 October 2007 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
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
8 February 2013 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
8 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-08
Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
4 June 2013 – 8 September 2013
2013-09-08
2013-06-04
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
8 October 2013 – 18 December 2013
2013-12-18
2013-10-08
Toyko Metropolitan Art Museum (Toyko, Japan)
1 January 2014 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
2014-01-01
Kobe City Museum (Kobe, Japan)
2013-02-08
J.M.W. Turner: Makings of a Master
Loan-out
6 April 2020 – 27 November 2022
2022-11-27
6 April 2020
2020-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-04-06
Clore 107
Collection based display
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
2023-10-28
Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (Munich, Germany)
2023-10-28
Turner at Lenbachhaus Munich
Loan-out
The Tenth Plague of Egypt
support: 1435 × 2362 mm
frame: 1667 × 2590 × 107 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 illustrates a passage from the Bible. It describes one of the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians by God as punishment for enslaving the Jewish people: the killing of all the first-born sons of the Egyptians. The dark clouds in the sky emphasise the power of forces beyond human’s control. Turner exhibited the picture just a couple of months after becoming a full member of the Royal Academy. Depictions of stories from the Bible and ancient Greek and Roman myth was seen by the Academy as the most important form of art. This was known as the ‘Grand Style’</p>
</div>

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2020-07-01T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>17.</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-tenth-plague-of-egypt-n00470" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00470</span></a>]<b> The Tenth Plague of Egypt</b> Exh. 1802
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (470)
<br/>Canvas, 56 1/2 × 93 (142 × 236)
<br/><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (24, ‘The 10<sup>th</sup>
Plague’ 7'9" × 4'9 1/2"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.
<br/><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1802 (153); Tate Gallery 1931 (10).</p>
<p><b>Engr.</b> By W. Say for the <i>Liber Studiorum</i>, R.61, published 1 January 1816 with the classification ‘H’ for Historical (repr. Finberg 1924, p. 243; the preliminary pen and sepia drawing, CXVIII-H, and etching repr, p. 242). The composition, through containing the same elements, is compressed laterally and a shaft of lightning introduced.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Farington <i>Diary</i> 1 May 15 June 1802, 12 October 1812; Ruskin 1843 (1903–12, iii, pp. 240–41); Cunningham 1852, pp. 8–9; Thornbury 1862, i, p. 264; 1877, pp. 345, 419; Monkhouse 1879, p. 49; Bell 1901, pp. 61, 78–9 no. 97; Armstrong 1902, pp. 48–9, 221; Finberg 1924, p. 243; Davies 1946, p. 186; Clare 1951, pp. 29–30, repr. p. 28; Finberg 1961, pp. 77, 80, 171, 195, 465 no. 75; Ziff 1963, pp. 316–21, pl. 44; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, pp. 11–12, 16, pl. 19; Lindsay 1966, p. 77; Gage 1980, p. 244; Wilton 1980, pp. 69, 135; Verdi 1981, p. 398.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Accompanied in the 1802 R.A. catalogue by the following lines from <i>Exodus</i> xii, 29–30:
<br/></p>
<p>Ver. 29. 'And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land.</p>
<p>Ver. 30. ‘And Pharoah rose, he and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.’</p>
<p>
<br/>Farington, on 1 May 1802, mentions that ‘Turners Murder of the Innocents’, presumably this picture in the absence of any more likely candidate, was among those works ‘noticed by many’, and on 3 May he included Turner's ‘Tenth Plague of Egypt’ in a short list of five ‘favourite pictures’. On 15 June he records Smirke's opinion: ‘He thought the large picture by Turner “The [Plague] in Egypt”, an extraordinary production. —He was surprised at it.’
<br/>
<br/>The picture was singled out by the <i>Monthly Mirror</i> for June 1802: ‘... it aspires to the <i>ideal</i> imitation of nature ... Forests, cities, and storms, are combined to excite the idea of grandeur.’ The critic went on to warn that ‘There is a false as well as a true <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sublime" title="Glossary definition for 'Sublime'"><span>sublime</span></a>, and both present the same surface to the first glances of the eye. The merits of this picture are, however, many and great.’
<br/>
<br/>This picture was priced at £400 in a note, probably of c. 1810, in Turner's ‘Finance’ sketchbook (CXXII-36; for the date see Nos 53 and No.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>]).
<br/>
<br/><i>The Tenth Plague</i> is more dramatic than <i>The Fifth Plage</i> of two years earlier, reflecting, Ziff suggests, the influence of Poussin's <i><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>Landscape</span></a> with Pyramus and Thisbe</i>, at that time in the collection of the Earl of Ashburnham (Städelesches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main).
<br/>
<br/>The paint surface is badly damaged and overpainted in the middle ground in a large area extending from the trees on the left to the centre of the picture. Some of the glazes have also been lost, particularly in the sky.</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 architecture baby Bible: Old Testament birth to death children city wall countries and continents crime and punishment death Egypt emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas execution Exodus, chapter 12 grief landscape mourning people places religion and belief rocky society storm Ten Plagues of Egypt townscape townscapes / man-made features weather woman