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>
Hero a Hundred Fights
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
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emotions, concepts and ideas
fine art and design, named works
fire
foundry
industrial and crafts
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metalworking
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Wyatt, M.C., sculpture, ‘Duke of Wellington’
<p>This canvas was originally an exploration of industrial machinery, but it was reworked to show the moment when a bronze statue of the Duke of Wellington was removed from its mould. Using the intense light of the foundry to obscure the figure, Turner transforms Wellington into an ethereal presence. The image is in stark contrast to Turner’s carefully researched battle scenes. Here, tone and colour are employed to endow a national hero with elemental force.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</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
24 June 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
24 June 2002 – 1 July 2003
2003-07-01
2002-06-24
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-06-24
Turner: Sublime Landscape
Collection based display
1 July 2002 – 20 March 2005
2005-03-20
1 July 2002 – 20 March 2005
2005-03-20
2002-07-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-01
Turner and the Modern World
Collection based display
19 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
19 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
2009-08-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-19
War and Peace
Collection based display
2 June 2011 – 22 April 2012
2012-04-22
2 June 2011 – 11 September 2011
2011-09-11
2011-06-02
Bucerius Kunst Forum (Hamburg, Germany)
http://www.buceriuskunstforum.de
1 October 2011 – 8 January 2012
2012-01-08
2011-10-01
National Museum (Krakow, Poland)
28 January 2012 – 22 April 2012
2012-04-22
2012-01-28
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
2011-06-02
Turner and the Elements
Loan-out
10 September 2014 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
10 September 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
2014-09-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
24 February 2015 – 24 May 2015
2015-05-24
2015-02-24
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
20 June 2015 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
2015-06-20
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.famsf.org
2014-09-10
Late Turner: Painting Set Free
Exhibition
24 February 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
24 February 2015 – 24 May 2015
2015-05-24
2015-02-24
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
20 June 2015 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
2015-06-20
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum
31 October 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
2015-10-31
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada)
http://www.ago.net
2015-02-24
Late Turner
Loan-out
6 July 2019 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
6 July 2019 – 13 October 2019
2019-10-13
2019-07-06
Kunstmuseum (Luzern, Switzerland)
http://www.kunstmuseumluzern.ch
8 November 2019 – 26 January 2020
2020-01-26
2019-11-08
LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Westfälisches (Munster, Germany)
http://landesmuseum.lwl.org
20 February 2020 – 7 September 2020
2020-09-07
2020-02-20
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2019-07-06
The Sea and the Alps: Turner's Quest for the Sublime
Tate partnerships & programmes
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
The Hero of a Hundred Fights
support: 908 × 1213 mm
frame: 1275 × 1585 × 180 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 canvas was originally an exploration of industrial machinery, but it was reworked to show the moment when a bronze statue of the Duke of Wellington was removed from its mould. Using the intense light of the foundry to obscure the figure, Turner transforms Wellington into an ethereal presence. The image is in stark contrast to Turner’s carefully researched battle scenes. Here, tone and colour are employed to endow a national hero with elemental force.
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>427. </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-hero-of-a-hundred-fights-n00551" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00551</span></a>]<b> The Hero of a Hundred Fights</b> <i>c</i>. 1800–10;
<br/>reworked and exh. 1847</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (551)</p>
<p>Canvas, 35 3/4 × 47 3/4 (91 × 121)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (83, ‘Tapping the Furnace’ 4'0" × 3'0"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1929.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1847 (180); Newcastle 1912 (53); <i>Art and the Industrial Revolution</i> Manchester City Art Gallery, May–July 1968 (65, repr.); R.A. 1974–5 (527 repr.); on loan to the Wellington Museum 1975–7.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Ruskin, letter to Clarkson Stanfield 1847, and 1857 (1903–12, iv, p. 338 n.1; xiii, p. 167); Thornbury 1862, i, p. 349; 1877, p. 467; William Hall, <i>A Biography of David Cox</i>, 1881, pp. 198–9; Bell 1901, p. 157 no. 262; Armstrong 1901, p. 223; MacColl 1920, p. 25; Davies 1946, p. 187; Finberg 1961, pp. 416– 17, 510 no. 580; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 72; Reynolds 1969, p. 204, pl. 175; Gage 1972, p. 36, pl. 18; Wilton 1979, p. 222; Gage 1980, p. 8; Ziff 1980, p. 190.</p>
<p>Exhibited in 1847 with the explanation:</p>
<p>‘An idea suggested by the German invocation upon casting the bell: in England called tapping the furnace.-<i>MS Fallacies of Hope</i>’.</p>
<p>The reference to the <i>Fallacies of Hope</i> suggests that some verses may have been omitted. Turner may also have been referring to Schiller's <i>Song of the Bell</i>. Jerrold Ziff has suggested that Turner may have been reflecting the mood shown in, for instance, the popular <i>Penny Magazine</i>, which called in 1844 for a contemporary artist to depict an iron-foundry and to ‘produce a picture in which the play of light and shade would be remarkable’ (xiii, p. 74). The scene is the breaking away of the mould at the casting of M.C. Wyatt's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/metal" title="Glossary definition for 'Metal'"><span>bronze</span></a> equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington which had occurred in September 1845, but this was superimposed by Turner on a much earlier picture of an interior with large pieces of machinery, akin to, though not identical with, 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/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> of the interior of a belfry in the ‘Swans’ sketchbook of <i>c</i>. 1798 (XLII– 60 and 61). The original <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> must have been done <i>c</i>. 1800–10. When Turner came to rework it he left much of the original untouched, adding the great burst of light on the left and highlighting 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/s/still-life" title="Glossary definition for 'Still life'"><span>still-life</span></a> in the foreground. Much of the still-life seems to date from the earlier stage of the painting, but the strengthening of the colour is perhaps explained by William Hall, presumably retailing the views of David Cox: ‘Turner, not satisfied with the dazzling effect obtained by surrounding the blazing fire with broad masses of shadow on the walls and roof of the foundry, had determined to make the glow and glare still more effective by opposition of colour. He could conceive nothing that would naturally be seen in the place to answer the desired purpose; and so he introduced, in the immediate front of his picture, stretching from side to side, a row of cut cabbages of the greenest possible hue. These cabbages were a great puzzle to many visitors to the exhibition’. To a lady who ‘exclaimed aloud to her companion, “Whatever are they going to do with those cabbages?”’, Cox ‘made a polite bow, and gravely replied, “Boil them madam!”’</p>
<p>As a result of this reworking there is extensive drying crackle in the repainted areas as well as a number of small losses. The original painting, on a red ground, was relined, presumably by Turner, before the repainting but slightly askew; Turner extended the painted field over the cut edges of the original <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>.</p>
<p>One suspects that most of the work on <i>The Hero of a Hundred Fights</i> was done on the Varnishing Days. That Turner was there is known from his having touched in a portion of the rainbow of Maclise's <i>Sacrifice of Noah</i> which hung next to it, causing Ruskin to complain in a letter to Clarkson Stanfield, commiserating with him over the poor position of one of his exhibits, that ‘They have served Turner worse, however; there is nothing in his picture but even colour, and they must needs put Maclise's rainbow side by side with it-which takes part-and a very awkward and conclusive part too in its best melody’. The <i>Literary Gazette</i> for 8 May 1847 thought the opposite however, saying that the Turner was ‘painted up to such a blaze as to extinguish Noah's rainbow. It is a marvellous piece of colouring. If Turner had been Phaeton, he must have succeeded in driving the chariot of the sun.’ The critic of <i>The Times</i>, 1 May, after saying that it ‘strikes the eye at first as a simple burst of inexplicable brightness’, claimed to have guessed the subject before referring to the catalogue.</p>
<p>Other reviews were less favourable. ‘Fantastical absurdity’ and ‘dazzling obscurity’ wrote the <i>Spectator</i> on 8 May, adding, on 19 June, that ‘As a “vision”, it is a burlesque on poetic licence’. ‘Full of fine passages of chromatic arrangement’, said the <i>Athenaeum</i> for 8 May, ‘it has so little foundation in fact that the sense is merely bewildered at the unsparing hand with which the painter has spread forth the glories of his palette’. The <i>Art Union</i> for June suggested that ‘it pleases most when seen at various distances’. For the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>, 10 May, it was a ‘pictorial rhapsody. Let the reader suppose a capricious syringe filled with unmixed masses of red, white, yellow and green, and the contents discharged upon the canvass’. Cruellest of all was the <i>Illustrated London News</i>
for 8 May: ‘This kind of painting is not the madness of genius-it is the folly and imbecility of old age.’ Amazingly, no one seems to have noticed the stylistic dichotomy between the original painting and the superimposed glow that so dazzled them.</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
2004-10-26T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults aura cog creativity emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fine art and design, named works fire foundry industrial and crafts interiors machinery metalworking mysticism natural phenomena objects people power religion and belief shadow tools and machinery universal concepts woman work and occupations workspaces Wyatt, M.C., sculpture, ‘Duke of Wellington’