Oil paint on canvas
Italy
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>
Going to Ball San Martino
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
architecture
boat, gondola
boat, punt
canal
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
dome
features
industrial
Italy
places
society
sunrise
times of the day
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
Venice - non-specific
<p>Venice, rich in literary and historical associations, was a popular subject in the 19th century. Here, boats take revellers to one of the city’s infamous masquerade balls as the sun sets and the moon rises. Despite spending just under four weeks in the ‘City of Water’, Turner found great inspiration there: from 1833–46 Venetian scenes accounted for a third of his output. This work, with its pair, was his last painting of Venice. It was in Turner’s studio at the time of his death in 1851, and came to Tate as part of the Turner Bequest.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2013</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
9 October 2003 – 30 May 2004
2004-05-30
9 October 2003 – 11 January 2004
2004-01-11
2003-10-09
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
15 February 2004 – 30 May 2004
2004-05-30
2004-02-15
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
2003-10-09
Turner and Venice
Exhibition
24 February 2011 – 12 June 2011
2011-06-12
24 February 2011 – 12 June 2011
2011-06-12
2011-02-24
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Rome, Italy)
2011-02-24
The Myth of  Italy from Turner to Burne-Jones
Loan-out
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
2012-11-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-05
Gallery 9
Collection based display
10 September 2014 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
10 September 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
2014-09-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-09-10
Late Turner: Painting Set Free
Exhibition
1 May 2016 – 8 January 2017
2017-01-08
4 May 2016 – 18 September 2016
2016-09-18
2016-05-04
Caumont Art Centre (Aix-en-Provence, France)
7 October 2016 – 8 January 2017
2017-01-08
2016-10-07
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
2016-05-01
JMW Turner: From Shade and Darkness, to Light and Colour
Loan-out
5 August 2017 – 16 December 2017
2017-12-16
5 August 2017 – 15 October 2017
2017-10-15
2017-08-05
The Arc, Winchester (Winchester, UK)
21 October 2017 – 16 December 2017
2017-12-16
2017-10-21
The Willis Museum (Basingstoke, UK)
2017-08-05
Turner and the Sun
Loan-out
6 July 2019 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
15 October 2020 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
2020-10-15
Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (Québec, Canada)
http://www.mnba.qc.ca
2019-07-06
The Sea and the Alps: Turner's Quest for the Sublime
Tate partnerships & programmes
16 October 2021 – 14 July 2023
2023-07-14
16 October 2021 – 6 March 2022
2022-03-06
2021-10-16
ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum (Aarhus, Denmark)
18 May 2022 – 11 September 2022
2022-09-11
2022-05-18
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www.mnac.es
8 October 2022 – 5 February 2023
2023-02-05
2022-10-08
National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin, Ireland)
http://www.nationalgallery.ie
3 March 2023 – 25 June 2023
2023-06-25
2023-03-03
Fondation Pierre Gianadda (Martigny, Switzerland)
2021-10-16
Turner Watercolours: Sun is God
Tate partnerships & programmes
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
Going to the Ball (San Martino)
support: 616 × 924 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
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<p>Venice, rich in literary and historical associations, was a popular subject in the 19th century. Here, boats take revellers to one of the city’s infamous masquerade balls as the sun sets and the moon rises. <br/>Despite spending just under four weeks in the ‘City of Water’, Turner found great inspiration there: from 1833–46 Venetian scenes accounted for a third of his output. This work, with its pair, was his last painting of Venice. It was in Turner’s studio at the time of his death in 1851, and came to Tate as part of the Turner Bequest.</p>
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2013-10-29T00:00:00
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<p>
<b>416. </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-going-to-the-ball-san-martino-n00544" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00544</span></a>]<b> Venice, Evening, Going to the Ball</b> Exh. 1846</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (543)</p>
<p>Canvas, 24 1/4 × 36 3/8 (61.5 × 92.5)</p>
<p>
<b>Coll.</b> Painted for William Wethered, junior, of King's Lynn who, however, must have returned it to Turner before the artist's death (see Gage <i>loc. cit.</i> and entries for Nos. 421/2); Turner Bequest 1856 (one of 18–21, 36–40; see No. 383 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-venice-the-bridge-of-sighs-n00527" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00527</span></a>]); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1921.</p>
<p>
<b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1845 (117); Newcastle 1924 (160); Dresden (22, repr.) and Berlin (32) 1972; Lisbon 1973 (22, repr.); Hamburg 1976 (104, repr.); Mexico City (9, repr. p. 18) and Caracas (5) 1979; Athens 1980 (77, repr. in colour); Venice 1983–4 (11, repr. in colour as no. 13).</p>
<p>
<b>Lit.</b> Ruskin 1843 (1903–12, iii, pp. 250–51); Bell 1901, pp. 152–3 no. 251; Armstrong 1902, p. 235; Finberg 1930, pp. 151, 158; Davies 1946, p. 186; Finberg 1961, pp. 407–8, 509 no. 565; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 66; Gage 1980, pp. 200, 207, 213–14.</p>
<p>Exhibited in 1845 with the caption ‘<i>MS. Fallacies of Hope</i>’; see Nos. 355 [<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-golden-bough-n00371" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00371</span></a>] for a possible explanation of the absence of any actual verses.</p>
<p>As the critic of the <i>Spectator</i> implied, 24 May, Turner's four Venetian scenes exhibited this year, two in the East Room and two in the Middle Room, cover the four ‘effects of morning and evening, noon and sunset’ (see Nos. 417 {<span>N00544</span>], 418 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-venice-noon-n00541" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00541</span></a>] and 419 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-venice-sunset-a-fisher-n00542" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00542</span></a>]); however, ‘there may have been times when these different periods assimilated in nature as closely as they do in these pictures; only such must be exceptional cases!’ Earlier, on 10 May, the<i>Spectator</i> had written of the first two ‘with their magical effects of light and colour: the watery floor and aërial sky meet at the horizon in a gorgeous mass of orange and golden tints ... the intervening space being filled with the glowing atmosphere.’ Similarly, <i>The Times</i> for 6 May spoke of ‘a play of brilliant colours, sparkling as they vanish above smooth waters.’ Unfortunately, today one has to take most of these qualities on trust. The <i>Morning Chronicle</i> for 7 May returned to the way in which Turner's late pictures made sense at a distance. In this picture ‘the rising moon... with its long gleam of light coming across the waters, is really a curiosity worthy of study. Stuck on with the palette knife, or the thumb, who would think it would give the soft cool light it does? ... Regretting his apparently incurable mannerism, we cannot but admit that in the present instance he has somewhat cured it of its extravagance.’</p>
<p>Ruskin, in the later editions of <i>Modern Painters</i> i, writes ‘Of the Exhibition of 1845, I have only seen a small Venice (still, I believe, in the artist's possession) and the two Whaling subjects. The Venice is a second-rate work...’ He could be referring to this picture or to any one of Nos. 417 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-returning-from-the-ball-st-martha-n00543" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00543</span></a>], 418 [<span>N00541</span>] and 419 [<span>N00542</span>].</p>
<p>The early histories of the two pairs of <i>Going to</i> and <i>Returning from the Ball</i> exhibits of 1845 and 1846 are greatly entwined. For an attempt to disentangle them, see the entry for Nos. 421 and 422.</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.</p>
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Catalogue entry
2012-09-20T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
architecture boat, gondola boat, punt canal cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents dome features industrial Italy places society sunrise times of the day townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features transport: water Venice - non-specific