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>
Figures in a Building
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
arch
architecture
cellar
domestic
features
figure
interiors
light
natural phenomena
people
<p>Besides Rembrandt, Turner's later paintings of figure subjects were influenced by more recent artists, such as RP Bonington and CR Leslie, who painted historical scenes in interiors; he was also influenced by the current fashion for illustrations of such subjects in popular magazines. This is one of several works where Turner seems to be developing a historical subject without any very clear direction, as if hoping a theme might occur as he moved his paints around on the canvas. The stone vault resembles a dungeon and the figures are in period costume. The subject is painted over an earlier landscape.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
2001-06-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-06-18
From Studio to Gallery: Sketches in the Turner Bequest
Collection based display
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
12 November 2011 – 1 May 2012
2012-05-01
12 November 2011 – 1 May 2012
2012-05-01
2011-11-12
Palazzo Ducale (Genoa, Italy)
http://www.palazzoducale.genova.it
2011-11-12
Van Gogh and Gauguin's Journey. Painting the experience of spaces from Turner to Rothko.
Loan-out
Figures in a Building
support: 914 × 1219 mm
frame: 1310 × 1620 × 205 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>Besides Rembrandt, Turner's later <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>  of figure subjects were influenced by more recent artists, such as RP Bonington and CR Leslie, who painted historical scenes in interiors; he was also influenced by the current fashion for illustrations  of such subjects in popular magazines. This  is one of several works where Turner seems  to be developing a historical subject without  any very clear direction, as if hoping a theme  might occur as he moved his paints around  on the <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/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>. The stone vault resembles  a dungeon and the figures are in period costume. The subject is painted over an earlier <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>.
</p><p>
</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
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>446. </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-figures-in-a-building-n05496" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05496</span></a>]<b> Figures in a Building</b> <i>c</i>. 1830–35</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5496)</p>
<p>Canvas, 36 × 48 (91·5 × 122)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Agnew 1967 (20); Dresden (13, repr.) and Berlin (13, pl. 33) 1972.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, p. 160.</p>
<p>Very close in character to No. 445 [<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>], though the setting with its heavy vaults may be a subterranean one. The figures are even more Rembrandtesque.</p>
<p>The existing picture was painted over a completely unrelated <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> <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> with brown foreground and blue sky, thinly painted, and strongly defined buildings on the sky line, painted with considerable <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impasto" title="Glossary definition for 'Impasto'"><span>impasto</span></a>; the building were level with the waists of the figures on the left and are still discernible. This composition had fully dried before the present one was added on top. The lack of adhesion produced considerable losses, particularly along the edges top right and in an area below the figures on the left; these losses, though touched in, can still be detected as depressions in the surface of the picture.</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
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults arch architecture cellar domestic features figure interiors light natural phenomena people