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>
Venus and Dead Adonis
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
actions: expressive
Adonis
adults
Aphrodite / Venus
birth to death
classical myths: gods and heroes
death
embracing
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
gestural
grief
landscape
man
people
religion and belief
rocky
society
woman
<p>This picture was given its title after Turner's death. The pose of the Venus recalls the work of the great Venetian painter Titian (circa 1487-1576), whose pictures Turner studied closely in the early 1800s. Apart from the bearing this fact has on our view of how Turner's style developed, it is also an apt reminder of how Renaissance artists, Titian especially, explored the classical world and reinvigorated, on canvas, the ancient stories.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
17 May 2004 – 8 September 2004
2004-09-08
17 May 2004
2004-05-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-05-17
The Boy
Collection based display
Venus and the Dead Adonis
support: 318 × 451 mm
frame: 345 × 480 × 35 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>This picture was given its title after Turner's death. The pose of the Venus recalls the work of the great Venetian painter Titian (circa 1487-1576), whose pictures Turner studied closely in the early 1800s. Apart from the bearing this fact has on our view of how Turner's style developed, it is also an apt reminder of how <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/renaissance" title="Glossary definition for 'Renaissance'"><span>Renaissance</span></a> artists, Titian especially, explored 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/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>classical</span></a> world and reinvigorated, 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/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, the ancient stories.</p>
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2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p>151. [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-venus-and-the-dead-adonis-n05493" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05493</span></a>] <b>Venus and the Dead Adonis</b> <i>c.</i> 1805?
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5493)
<br/>Canvas, 12 1/2 × 17 3/4 (31·5 × 45)
<br/><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (? 183, I unidentified 1'5 1/2" × 1'0 1/2"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, p. 160; Ziff 1980, p. 169.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The back of 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>, where not masked by the stretcher, was covered by a fairly thin layer of brown paint, partly covered by dryish white paint, bumpy in places; this had to be removed prior to the laying down of the canvas on a synthetic board, but 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/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> exists.
<br/>
<br/>It is very difficult to date this little picture. The figures' somewhat Titianesque poses suggest a date not too far from Turner's study of Titian's works in the Louvre in 1802, which led to the large <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> of an earlier episode in the story of Venus and Adonis, No. 150. Indeed, the ‘Calais Pier’ sketchbook includes, as well as sketches for that picture, others for a ‘Death of Adonis’, never executed, though these are not directly related to this little oil sketch (LXXXI-48 and 52). On the other hand, the head of the dead Adonis is not very different from <i>Head of a Person asleep</i>, here dated <i>c.</i> 1835 (No. 452 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-head-of-a-person-asleep-n05494" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05494</span></a>]). The picture could perhaps therefore reflect Turner's return to Titianesque subjects and techniques on his second visit to Rome of 1828–9. In his review of the first edition of this catalogue Jerrold Ziff supports an early dating, <i>c.</i> 1803–5.</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
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive Adonis adults Aphrodite / Venus birth to death classical myths: gods and heroes death embracing emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities gestural grief landscape man people religion and belief rocky society woman