Oil paint on mahogany
Edinburgh
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>
George IV at Provosts Banquet in Parliament House Edinburgh
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
actions: postures and motions
adults
chandelier
court dress
crowd
dinner party
dress: ceremonial/royal
eating and drinking
Edinburgh
Edinburgh, Parliament House
food and drink
fruit - non-specific
furnishings
George IV, King / Prince Regent
groups
hall
heating and lighting
history
interiors
king
kitchen
kneeling
leisure and pastimes
man
named individuals
objects
people
places
plate
politician - non-specific
politics and society
public and municipal
public service
religious and ceremonial
royalty and social rank
royalty: George IV, visit to Edinburgh, Aug 1822
Scotland
society
standing
table
throne
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
work and occupations
<p>Parliament Hall, part of Edinburgh’s old Parliament House, was used by the independent Scottish government until 1707. Beneath its dramatic hammer-beam roof, the king was offered a silver basin of rose-water during a banquet for three hundred. Sir Walter Scott’s son and nephew attended the bearer, while Yeomen of the Guard stood by. For Turner, sometimes criticised for his figure painting, to commence such a complex group portrait was hugely ambitious. The unfinished panel remains instead a hazy impression in crimson, white and gold. Its plunging perspective is mirrored in the companion view of St Giles’ Cathedral.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint mahogany
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
10 April 2006 – 12 March 2007
2007-03-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-04-10
Impressions and Ideas Turner's Oil Sketches and Studies
Collection based display
1 June 2007 – 15 March 2009
2009-03-15
1 June 2007
2007-06-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-06-01
Interrupted Visions: Oil Sketches 1820s-1840s
Collection based display
19 August 2009 – 27 July 2010
2010-07-27
19 August 2009 – 27 July 2010
2010-07-27
2009-08-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-19
Landscape and Nation: Turner's Britain
Collection based display
14 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
14 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
2012-04-14
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-14
Turner as a British Artist
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
George IV at the Provost’s Banquet in the Parliament House, Edinburgh
support: 686 × 918 mm
frame: 970 × 1198 × 98 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>Parliament Hall, part of Edinburgh’s old Parliament House, was used by the independent Scottish government until 1707. Beneath its dramatic hammer-beam roof, the king was offered a silver basin of rose-water during a banquet for three hundred. Sir Walter Scott’s son and nephew attended the bearer, while Yeomen of the Guard stood by. For Turner, sometimes criticised for his figure painting, to commence such a complex group portrait was hugely ambitious. The unfinished panel remains instead a hazy impression in crimson, white and gold. Its plunging perspective is mirrored in the companion view of St Giles’ Cathedral.</p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p>[from]<b> Nos. 247–8b : George IV's Visit to Edinburgh, 1822 </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-george-iv-at-st-giless-edinburgh-n02857" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02857</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-george-iv-at-the-provosts-banquet-in-the-parliament-house-edinburgh-n02858" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02858</span></a>; <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-shipping-n02879" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02879</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-george-ivs-departure-from-the-royal-george-1822-n02880" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02880</span></a>]</p>
<p>IN August 1822, the year after his coronation, George IV paid a two-week state visit to Edinburgh, the first by a British monarch since the Act of Union of 1707. The Royal Squadron arrived at Leith on 14 August and George IV landed the following day, staying at the Palace of Holyrood until 29 August. The visit was staged by Sir Walter Scott. A number of artists attended the occasion, including Turner, who seems to have been in Edinburgh as early as 7 August (he was definitely there by 14 August) and was presumably there until the end of the royal visit.</p>
<p>Gerald Finley has suggested that Turner planned a series 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/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> covering this visit, to be <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraved</span></a> and probably in the hope of royal patronage.</p>
<p>Turner used two sketchbooks in Edinburgh, the ‘King's Visit to Scotland’ sketchbook (CC) and the ‘King at Edinburgh’ sketchbook (CCI), the latter containing a double-spread of nineteen rough <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> sketches (p. 44 <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/recto-verso" title="Glossary definition for 'Recto / Verso'"><span>verso</span></a> and inside back cover; both sketchbooks are repr. in full in Finley 1981); four of these can be linked with paintings in the Turner Bequest, two long identified with this visit (Nos. 247 [<span>N02857</span>] and 248 [<span>N02858</span>]), the other two only recently identified by Finley, a discovery reflected in the exhibition and accompanying book of <i>Turner and George the Fourth in Edinburgh, 1822</i>, 1981–2.</p>
<p>All four paintings are on <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/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a>, relatively unusual for Turner, two being approximately 2 1/2 inches higher than the others. It is uncertain how many pictures Turner would have completed had the scheme been fulfilled. It is also uncertain why the scheme was abandoned but the reason is hinted at in a letter of 3 December 1823 to J.C. Schetky. From this it appears that Schetky had offered Turner the use of one of his <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>drawings</span></a> of the Royal Barge, only roughly sketched by Turner during his visit, but, so Turner writes, ‘there is an end to that commission owing to the difficulty attending engraving the subjects’ (Gage <i>loc. cit.</i>). Turner had presumably abandoned work on the paintings by this time.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Finley 1975, pp. 27–35; Gage 1980, p. 90; Finley 1981.</p>
<p><b>248. </b>[<span>N02858</span>] <b>George IV at the Provost's Banquet in the Parliament House, Edinburgh</b> <i>c.</i> 1822</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (2858)</p>
<p>Mahogany, 27 × 36 1/8 (68·5 × 91·8)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (? 154, one of ‘3 each (ditto [panel])’ 3'0" × 2'3"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1929.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1974–5 (308); Tate Gallery and Edinburgh 1981–2; on loan to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery 1982–5.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Falk 1938, pp. 129–30; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 30, pl. 65; Reynolds 1969, p. 117, colour pl. 97; Finley 1975, p. 35, repr.p. 30 fig.20; Wilkinson 1975, p. 9, repr. in colour p. 10; Finley 1981, pp. 37–8, 43, pl. 16.</p>
<p>The last, unnumbered drawing in the series of designs connected with the royal visit to Edinburgh in 1822 seems to relate to this subject and there is also what seems to be a very rapid sketch of the scene, closer to this oil painting, in the ‘King's Visit to Scotland’ sketchbook (CC-22 verso). The Provost's Banquet was held in the Parliament House on 24 August 1822.</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/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults chandelier court dress crowd dinner party dress: ceremonial/royal eating and drinking Edinburgh Edinburgh, Parliament House food and drink fruit - non-specific furnishings George IV, King / Prince Regent groups hall heating and lighting history interiors king kitchen kneeling leisure and pastimes man named individuals objects people places plate politician - non-specific politics and society public and municipal public service religious and ceremonial royalty and social rank royalty: George IV, visit to Edinburgh, Aug 1822 Scotland society standing table throne UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions work and occupations