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>
Holy Family
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
animals: reptiles
baby
Bible: New Testament
children
Christ
family
family
Holy Family
landscape
man
mother and child
people
religion and belief
rocky
Saints
snake
society
St Joseph
Virgin Mary
woman
wooded
<p>Turner paints in the style of the ‘Old Master’ painters in many of his early works, setting himself up to be compared against them. This picture was shown in 1803, the year after he studied the Old Master collections in the Louvre in Paris. He would have seen Titian’s St Peter Martyr (now destroyed). It was a source of inspiration for this work.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
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
25 April 2001 – 29 July 2001
2001-07-29
25 April 2001 – 30 July 2001
2001-07-30
2001-04-25
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-04-25
House and Studio
Collection based display
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
16 November 2008 – 7 June 2009
2009-06-07
23 November 2008 – 22 February 2009
2009-02-22
2008-11-23
Palazzo dei Diamanti (Ferrara, Italy)
23 March 2009 – 7 June 2009
2009-06-07
2009-03-23
National Galleries of Scotland (Edinburgh, UK)
15 July 2009 – 25 October 2009
2009-10-25
2009-07-15
Szépmüvészeti Múzeum (Budapest, Hungary)
http://www.szepmuveszeti.hu/
2008-11-16
Turner and Italy
Loan-out
21 September 2009 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 24 January 2010
2010-01-24
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2009-09-21
Turner and the Masters
Exhibition
14 April 2012 – 9 February 2020
2020-02-09
14 April 2012 – 9 February 2020
2020-02-09
2012-04-14
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-14
Clore Introduction: Ambition and Legacy
Collection based display
6 April 2020 – 27 November 2022
2022-11-27
6 April 2020
2020-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-04-06
Clore 107
Collection based display
Holy Family
support: 1022 × 1416 mm
frame: 1430 × 1810 × 150 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
<div class="text">
<p>Turner paints in the style of the ‘Old Master’ painters in many of his early works, setting himself up to be compared against them. This picture was shown in 1803, the year after he studied the Old Master collections in the Louvre in Paris. He would have seen Titian’s St Peter Martyr (now destroyed). It was a source of inspiration for this work.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-07-01T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>49. </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-holy-family-n00473" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00473</span></a>]<b> Holy Family</b> Exh. 1803
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (473)
<br/>Canvas, 40 1/4 × 55 3/4 (102 × 141·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (69, ‘A Holy Family’ 4'10" × 3'6"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1803 (156); Tate Gallery 1931 (18); Whitechapel 1953 (72); R.A. 1974–5 (77).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Farington <i>Diary</i> 2 May 1803; Thornbury 1862, i, p. 264; 1877, p. 420; Hamerton 1879, p. 98; Bell 1901, pp. 61, 81 no. 103; Armstrong 1902, p. 223; Whitley 1928, p. 59; Davies 1946, p. 187; Finberg 1961, pp. 98–9, 171, 465 no. 85; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 16; Lindsay 1966, p. 230 n. 6; Gage 1969, p. 140, pl. 64; Reynolds 1969, p. 56, pl. 37; Herrmann 1975, pp. 14–15, 228, pl. 43; Wilton 1979, pp. 83–4, pl. 71; Ziff 1980, p. 168; Paulson 1982, pp. 72–3.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This picture and <i>Venus and Adonis</i> (No. 150), both influenced strongly by Titian, are interrelated in <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>. The <i>Holy Family</i> may have been inspired in general terms by Titian's <i>Holy Family and a Shepherd</i>, sold with the W.Y. Ottley collection in London in January 1801 and now in the National Gallery (see Cecil Gould, <i>National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Venetian School</i> 1959, pp. 97–8), while <i>Venus and Adonis</i>
owes a still closer debt to Titian's now destroyed <i>St Peter Martyr</i>
<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/altarpiece" title="Glossary definition for 'Altarpiece'"><span>altarpiece</span></a>. This <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> from SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice (where Turner was later, in 1819, to copy a dètail of the foreground foliage and the Martyr's leg) had been looted by Napoleon and was seen by Turner in the Louvre during his visit in 1802; his notes on the picture cover three pages of the ‘Studies in the Louvre’ sketchbook (LXXII-28 <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>, 28 and 27 verso). Well known in England already through <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>engravings</span></a>, it was eulogised by Turner in his 1811 lecture as Professor 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/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>Perspective</span></a> at the R.A.: ‘the highest honour that <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> has as yet, she received from the hand of Titian; ... the triumph even of Landscape may be safely said to exist in his divine picture of St. Peter Martyr’ (see Jerold Ziff, ‘“Backgrounds, Introduction of Architecture and Landscape”: A Lecture by J.M.W. Turner’, <i>Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes</i> xxvi 1963, p. 135). (For Martino Rota's engraving after the Titian see Plate 568.)
<br/>
<br/>The <i>Holy Family</i> was also originally based on the composition of Titian's <i>Peter Martyr</i>. 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/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> in the ‘Calais Pier’ sketchbook shows the Holy Family in the setting, complete with flying putti above, of the Titian (LXXXI-63, repr. with both the Turners under discussion by Gage 1969, pls. 61–4; see also LXXXI-62). However, Turner decided on an oblong format, close even in size to the Ottley Titian, apparently following another drawing in the ‘Calais Pier’ sketchbook (LXXXI-60; there are further related drawings on LXXXI-44 and 47). The <i>St Peter Martyr</i> setting he then used for <i>Venus and Adonis</i>, datable for stylistic reasons to <i>c.</i> 1803–5. Jerrold Ziff also sees an influence from Lorenzo Lotto's <i>Recognition of the Holy Child</i>, copied by Turner in the Louvre in 1802 (LXXII-63), but his statement that the ‘arrangement of Turner's figures is similar to Lotto's Jesus, Joseph and Mary’ does not bear comparison with the original (repr. Bernard Berenson, <i>Lorenzo Lotto</i>, 1956 ed., pl. 297).
<br/>
<br/>The serpent that slides away on the right of the <i>Holy Family</i>
is presumably a traditional allusion to the Redeemer striking the serpent's head, though Gage also finds a connection with the confrontation of <i>Apollo and the Python</i> (No. 115, [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-apollo-and-python-n00488" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00488</span></a>]) of <i>c.</i> 1803–11, and the nature symbolism of Jacob Boehme (<i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 139–40).
<br/>
<br/>The <i>Holy Family</i> was not well received in the press. The <i>True Briton</i>
for 6 May, attacking the figures, concluded that ‘unless the artist can produce something better, we advise him to take an eternal farewell of History’, and John Britton in the <i>British Press</i> for 9 May, while noting ‘a bold and daring effort’, agreed with ‘a man of great taste, that Mr. Turner has ... spoilt a fine landscape by very bad figures.’ Farington recorded, on 2 May, Fuseli's judgment: ‘His Historical Picture “A Holy Family” He also thought like an embrio, or blot of a great Master of colouring.’
<br/>
<br/>This picture was priced at £400 in a note, probably of <i>c.</i> 1810, in Turner's ‘Finance’ sketchbook (CXXII-36; for the date see Nos. 53 and 56, [<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-destruction-of-sodom-n00474" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00474</span></a>]).
<br/></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>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animals: reptiles baby Bible: New Testament children Christ family family Holy Family landscape man mother and child people religion and belief rocky Saints snake society St Joseph Virgin Mary woman wooded