Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
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>
Fall Anarchy 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
animals: mammals
Bible: New Testament
birth to death
body
death
horse
Judaeo-Christian imagery
Last Judgement
people
religion and belief
Revelation, chapter 6
skeleton
society
<p>This unfinished painting shows a skeletal figure on horseback emerging from atmospheric mists. This probably represents Anarchy – an oppressor of the people – as imagined in the final episode of Shelley’s poem <span>The Masque of Anarchy</span>. This was written in immediate response to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, which saw the military storm a peaceful reform protest in Manchester, killing 18 and injuring hundreds. Shelley’s poem was not published until 1832, when the Reform Act became law. Turner’s image may reference the moment when a mysterious light-filled mist awakens thoughts of resistance in the people.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
18 March 2001 – 20 May 2001
2001-05-20
18 March 2001 – 20 May 2001
2001-05-20
2001-03-18
Whitechapel Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.whitechapel.org/
2001-03-18
Whitechapel Centenary
Loan-out
7 November 2003 – 8 February 2004
2004-02-08
7 November 2003 – 8 February 2004
2004-02-08
2003-11-07
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Birmingham, UK)
http://www.bmag.org.uk
2003-11-07
Turner's Britain
Loan-out
10 April 2006 – 12 March 2007
2007-03-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-04-10
Impressions and Ideas Turner's Oil Sketches and Studies
Collection based display
1 October 2007 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
1 October 2007 – 6 January 2008
2008-01-06
2007-10-01
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 February 2008 – 18 May 2008
2008-05-18
2008-02-10
Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, USA)
http://www.DallasMuseumofArt.org
23 June 2008 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
2008-06-23
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
2007-10-01
JMW Turner
Tate partnerships & programmes
18 August 2009 – 14 November 2010
2010-11-14
18 August 2009 – 14 November 2010
2010-11-14
2009-08-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-18
Sublime
Collection based display
28 April 2012 – 10 July 2016
2016-07-10
28 April 2012
2012-04-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-28
In The Studio
Collection based display
11 July 2016 – 15 March 2020
2020-03-15
11 July 2016 – 15 March 2020
2020-03-15
2016-07-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2016-07-11
Clore 103 In the Studio
Collection based display
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/
17 October 2021 – 6 February 2022
2022-02-06
2021-10-17
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
27 March 2022 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
2022-03-27
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
http://www.mfa.org
2020-10-28
Turner's Modern World
Exhibition
17 October 2021 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
17 October 2021 – 6 February 2022
2022-02-06
2021-10-17
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
27 March 2022 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
2022-03-27
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
http://www.mfa.org
2021-10-17
Turner's Modern World
Loan-out
26 September 2022
26 September 2022
2022-09-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-09-26
Gallery 10
Collection based display
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
4 February 2025 – 8 June 2025
2025-06-08
4 February 2025 – 8 June 2025
2025-06-08
2025-02-04
Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris, France)
2025-02-04
Apocalypse
Loan-out
The Fall of Anarchy (?)
support: 597 × 756 mm
frame: 776 × 940 × 68 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>This unfinished painting shows a skeletal figure on horseback emerging from atmospheric mists. This probably represents Anarchy – an oppressor of the people – as imagined in the final episode of Shelley’s poem The Masque of Anarchy. This was written in immediate response to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, which saw the military storm a peaceful reform protest in Manchester, killing 18 and injuring hundreds. Shelley’s poem was not published until 1832, when the Reform Act became law. Turner’s image may reference the moment when a mysterious light-filled mist awakens thoughts of resistance in the people.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-29T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
<p><b>259. </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-the-fall-of-anarchy-n05504" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05504</span></a>]<b> Death on a Pale Horse (?)</b> <i>c.</i>
1825–30</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5504)</p>
<p>Canvas, 23 1/2 × 29 3/4 (60 × 75·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (? 160, I unidentified 2'6" × 2' 0"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Whitechapel 1953 (100); Tate Gallery 1959 (358); New York 1966 (5, repr. p. 24); <i>Il Sacro e il Profano nell' Arte dei Simbolisti</i>
Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin, June–August 1969 (13, repr.); Dresden (9, repr.) and Berlin (12, colour pl. 29); R.A. 1974–5 (335); Leningrad and Moscow 1975–6 (30); Paris 1983–4 (49, repr.).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, p. 162; Gowing 1966, pp. 24–7, repr. p. 24; Reynolds 1969, p. 203, pl. 174; Gaunt 1971, p. 12, colour pl. 48; Wilton 1979, p. 210.</p>
<p>Formerly called ‘A Skeleton falling off a Horse in Mid-Air’, this picture has been identified as an illustration to the Book of Revelation, in particular the appearance of the pale horse bearing Death after the opening of the fourth seal (vi, 8); the skeleton's crown could have been suggested by that worn by the first horseman, who rides a white horse but also carries a bow (vi, 2). However, the slumped position of the rider does not suggest a conqueror with power over a fourth part of the earth. Nevertheless, Turner's somewhat confused choice of this subject could reflect his interest in a theme that was popular with the more imaginative <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/neoclassicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Neoclassicism'"><span>neo-classical</span></a> artists of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries such as Benjamin West, John Hamilton Mortimer, P.J. de Loutherbourg and William Blake. In addition Lawrence Gowing has suggested that the subject may have been inspired by the death of Turner's father in 1829.</p>
<p>The degree of rubbing and scratching away of the wet paint to produce special effects is unparalleled among Turner's oils but is found to a lesser extent in such works as <i>George IV at the Provost's Banquet in Edinburgh</i> of c. 1822 (Nos. 248), some of the Cowes sketches of 1827 (Nos. 264 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sketch-for-east-cowes-castle-the-regatta-starting-for-their-moorings-no-2-n02000" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02000</span></a>] and 267 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-shipping-off-east-cowes-headland-n01999" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01999</span></a>]), and <i>Rocky Bay with Figures</i> of <i>c.</i> 1830 (No. 434 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-rocky-bay-with-figures-n01989" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01989</span></a>]). The picture can therefore be tentatively dated to <i>c.</i>
1825–30.</p>
<p>Gage (exh. cat., Paris 1983–4, pp. 111–12) relates the technique more closely to that of the erotic figure studies in the ‘Fishing at the Weir’ sketchbook and the ‘Colour Studies I’ sketchbook (CCLXXXI and CCXCI(b) and dates 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/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> to <i>c.</i> 1830. He also relates the head of the horse to one of the more battered horses on the Parthenon frieze, as <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>engraved</span></a> by Stothard after Pars for Stuart and Revett's <i>Antiquities of Athens</i> iv 1816, ch. iv, pls. vii and viii.</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
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
animals: mammals Bible: New Testament birth to death body death horse Judaeo-Christian imagery Last Judgement people religion and belief Revelation, chapter 6 skeleton society