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>
Pilate Washing his Hands
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
actions: expressive
actions: processes and functions
adults
arch
architecture
baby
Bible: New Testament
carrying / holding
child
children
Christ
comforting
courtyard
cross
crowd
features
groups
looking / watching
man
Matthew, chapter 17
objects
people
platform / stage
Pontius Pilate
religion and belief
religious and ceremonial
townscapes / man-made features
washing / drying
woman
<p>Turner exhibited this picture at the Royal Academy in 1830 with a quote from the Bible. In St. Matthew’s gospel, Pontius Pilate ‘washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person’. This was to show the crowd he did not want Jesus dead, but ordered his death because that is what the people wanted. He was washing his hands of the responsibility. This is one of several paintings from the 1830s in which Turner took inspiration from 17th-century artist Rembrandt’s use of colour and biblical subject matter.</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
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
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)
2009-09-21
Turner and the Masters
Exhibition
22 February 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 3 January 2010
2010-01-03
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-02-22
Turner and the Masters
Loan-out
28 April 2012 – 3 July 2016
2016-07-03
28 April 2012
2012-04-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-28
The Body
Collection based display
1 August 2016 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
1 August 2016 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
2016-08-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2016-08-01
Clore 104 Turner exhibited
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
Pilate Washing his Hands
support: 914 × 1219 mm
frame: 1300 × 1610 × 210 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 exhibited this picture at the Royal Academy in 1830 with a quote from the Bible. In St. Matthew’s gospel, Pontius Pilate ‘washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person’. This was to show the crowd he did not want Jesus dead, but ordered his death because that is what the people wanted. He was washing his hands of the responsibility.  <br/>This is one of several paintings from the 1830s in which Turner took inspiration from 17th-century artist Rembrandt’s use of colour and biblical subject matter.  </p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-07-01T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>332. </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-pilate-washing-his-hands-n00510" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00510</span></a>]<b> Pilate washing his Hands</b> Exh. 1830</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (510)</p>
<p>Canvas, 36 × 48 (91·5 × 122)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (75, ‘Pilate washing his hands’ 4'0" × 3'0"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1830(7); Whitechapel 1953 (83); Edinburgh 1968 (6, repr.); R.A. 1974–5 (332).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, p. 307; Hamerton 1879, p. 232; Bell 1901, p. 112 no. 164; Armstrong 1902, p. 227; Whitley 1930, p. 191; Davies 1946, p. 187; Finberg 1961, pp. 321, 490 no. 347; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 44, colour pl. xi; Gage 1965, p. 79; Gowing 1966, p. 31; Lindsay 1966, p. 178; Gage 1969, p. 91; Reynolds 1969, pp. 127–8, colour pl. 109; Gage 1972, pp. 53–6, pl. 33; Herrmann 1975, pp. 36. 232, pl. 127; Wilton 1969, pp. 208–10.</p>
<p>Exhibited in 1830 with the text from the Bible:</p>
<p>‘“And when Pilate saw he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see ye to it.”—<i>St. Matthew</i>, chap. xxvii. ver. 24.’</p>
<p>This is the first of three <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 Biblical subjects that owe a lot to Rembrandt, already represented with works of this general character at the National Gallery from its opening in 1824; the others are <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>]), and the unfinished <i>Christ driving the Traders from the Temple</i>, also of about this date (No. 436 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-christ-driving-the-traders-from-the-temple-n05474" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05474</span></a>]). The renewed interest in figures, which, though relatively small in scale, dominate 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/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>, their rich costumes and the types of the Jewish priests, as well as the dramatic use of light and the thick heavily worked paint all point to Rembrandt, to whom Turner had already paid tribute in <i>Rembrandt's Daughter</i>, exhibited in 1827 (No. 238).</p>
<p>This picture and the similarly Rembrandtesque <i>Jessica</i> (No. 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>]), so different from 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/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscapes</span></a> of that year (Nos. 292 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-view-of-orvieto-painted-in-rome-n00511" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00511</span></a>], 295 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-palestrina-composition-n06283" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06283</span></a>], 334 and 335), provoked the virulence of the critics. The <i>Literary Gazette</i> for 8 May 1830 called the <i>Pilate</i> ‘wretched and abortive’ and followed this up the next week by quoting a wag ‘saying, he fancied “a pilot washing his hands” was a fine marine subject’.</p>
<p>The <i>Morning Chronicle</i> for 3 May more interestingly linked its attack with an early account of Turner's practice of completing his pictures during 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/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a>'s Varnishing Days. Speaking of this picture and <i>Orvieto</i> (No. 292 [<span>N00511</span>]) the critic wrote, ‘We understand that when these pictures were sent to the Academy, it was difficult to define their subject; and that in the four or five days allowed (exclusively, and, therefore, with shameless partiality to A's [Associates) and R.A.'s to touch on their works, and injure as much as possible the underprivileged) they have been got up as we see them. They still partake of the character of conundrums.’</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/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: processes and functions adults arch architecture baby Bible: New Testament carrying / holding child children Christ comforting courtyard cross crowd features groups looking / watching man Matthew, chapter 17 objects people platform / stage Pontius Pilate religion and belief religious and ceremonial townscapes / man-made features washing / drying woman