Etching and mezzotint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Art Fund
Collection
Etchings and Engravings for the ‘Liber Studiorum’
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>
Fifth Plague Egypt engraved by Charles Turner
Presented by A. Acland Allen through the Art Fund 1925
adults
animals: actions
animals: mammals
architecture
Bible: Old Testament
birth to death
countries and continents
death
death
desert
diseases and conditions
Egypt
female
horse
landscape
lightning
monuments
nudes
people
places
plague
pyramid
religion and belief
river
society
storm
Ten Plagues of Egypt
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
water: inland
weather
woman
<p>In 1799 Napoleon invaded Egypt, then part of the Ottoman Empire, as a bridgehead to India where he was negotiating with Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore. Defeats, uprisings and plague forced the French to abandon Egypt by 1802. Here, Turner draws a parallel between the contemporary situation in Egypt and Biblical plagues, sent by God to punish Egypt for enslaving the Israelites. This print reproduces a painting that is sometimes interpreted as a coded attack on the slave trade. This is unlikely, as its owner William Beckford inherited several Jamaican sugar plantations, laboured by enslaved people.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2022</em></p>
paper print etching mezzotint
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/
2020-10-28
Turner's Modern World
Exhibition
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 Fifth Plague of Egypt, engraved by Charles Turner
image: 180 × 260 mm
Presented by A. Acland Allen through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1925
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<p>In 1799 Napoleon invaded Egypt, then part of the Ottoman Empire, as a bridgehead to India where he was negotiating with Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore. Defeats, uprisings and plague forced the French to abandon Egypt by 1802. Here, Turner draws a parallel between the contemporary situation in Egypt and Biblical plagues, sent by God to punish Egypt for enslaving the Israelites. This print reproduces a painting that is sometimes interpreted as a coded attack on the slave trade. This is unlikely, as its owner William Beckford inherited several Jamaican sugar plantations, laboured by enslaved people.</p>
</div>

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2022-11-03T00:00:00
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adults animals: actions animals: mammals architecture Bible: Old Testament birth to death countries and continents death death desert diseases and conditions Egypt female horse landscape lightning monuments nudes people places plague pyramid religion and belief river society storm Ten Plagues of Egypt townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features water: inland weather woman