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>
Rocky Bay with Figures
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
bay
beach
classical myths: gods and heroes
cliff
figure
group
groups
Odysseus / Ulysses
people
religion and belief
rocky
sea
seascapes and coasts
ship - non-specific
society
transport: water
<p>This unfinished painting was intended to be a subject from Homer's ancient Greek epic poems, the 'Odyssey' or the 'Iliad'. The scenery looks Mediterranean, there are suggestions of figures on the beach at left, with ships in the right distance and under the cliffs at left.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
18 February 2002 – 26 May 2002
2002-05-26
18 February 2002 – 26 May 2002
2002-05-26
2002-02-18
Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, USA)
http://www.artbma.org
4 October 2002 – 12 January 2003
2003-01-12
2002-10-04
Fundación Juan March (Madrid, Spain)
http://www.march.es
14 February 2003 – 30 April 2003
2003-04-30
2003-02-14
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon, Portugal)
http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/
2002-02-18
Turner - Baltimore
Tate partnerships & programmes
18 February 2002 – 26 October 2002
2002-10-26
18 February 2002 – 26 May 2002
2002-05-26
2002-02-18
Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, USA)
http://www.artbma.org
4 September 2002 – 19 January 2003
2003-01-19
2002-09-04
Fundación Juan March (Madrid, Spain)
http://www.march.es
20 February 2003 – 18 May 2003
2003-05-18
2003-02-20
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon, Portugal)
2002-02-18
Turner and the Sea
Tate partnerships & programmes
1 December 2002 – 31 March 2003
2003-03-31
13 December 2002 – 17 March 2003
2003-03-17
2002-12-13
Musée des Beaux-Arts (Nancy, France)
2002-12-01
Turner and Claude Lorrain
Tate partnerships & programmes
4 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
4 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
2004-09-04
Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen, Denmark)
2004-09-04
Turner and Constable and their European Contemporaries
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
14 March 2008 – 9 June 2008
2008-06-09
14 March 2008 – 9 June 2008
2008-06-09
2008-03-14
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
2008-03-14
The Triumph of Landscape: Turner to Monet
Loan-out
14 March 2012 – 5 June 2012
2012-06-05
14 March 2012 – 5 June 2012
2012-06-05
2012-03-14
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2012-03-14
Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude
Loan-out
21 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
21 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
2012-04-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-21
Travelling Light: European Travels
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
6 April 2020 – 27 November 2022
2022-11-27
6 April 2019
2019-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-04-06
Clore 102
Collection based display
Rocky Bay with Figures
support: 902 × 1232 mm
frame: 1230 × 1562 × 135 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 was intended to be a subject from Homer's ancient Greek epic poems, the 'Odyssey' or the 'Iliad'. The scenery looks Mediterranean, there are suggestions of figures on the beach at left, with ships in the right distance and under the cliffs at left.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-07-01T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>434. </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-rocky-bay-with-figures-n01989" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01989</span></a>] <b>Rocky Bay with Figures</b> <i>c.</i> 1830</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (1989)</p>
<p>Canvas, 36 × 49 (91·5 × 124·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1906.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Paris 1938 (147, repr.); Amsterdam, Berne, Paris (repr. in colour), Brussels (repr. in colour), Liege (repr. in colour) (33), Venice (repr. in colour) and Rome (repr. in colour) (38) 1947–8; Tate Gallery 1959 (348; not shown); R.A. 1974–5 (483); Leningrad and Moscow 1975–6 (52, repr.).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> MacColl 1920, p. 30; Rothenstein 1949, p. 18, colour pl. 10; Herrmann 1963, p. 27, pl. 11; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 39, pl. 76; Gaunt 1971, p. 7, colour pl. 21.</p>
<p>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> this is a variation on the theme of a number of the sketches on coarse <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> probably painted in Rome in 1828 (see Nos. 302 [<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-ulysses-deriding-polyphemus-n02958" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02958</span></a>], 303 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-italian-bay-n02959" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02959</span></a>] and 309 [<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-n03380" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03380</span></a>]), and also the finished <i>Ulysses deriding Polyphemus</i> exhibited in 1829 (No. 330). But it is very different in technique from the sketches, the paint being worked over, partly with the handle of the brush or even the fingers, to produce infinite gradations 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/t/tone" title="Glossary definition for 'Tone'"><span>tone</span></a>; in addition the colouring is much subtler. The sky is as finished in its more delicate style as that of <i>Ulysses deriding Polyphemus</i> and this may be the beginning of another work for exhibition, in Turner's standard 3 ft by 4 ft size; indeed MacColl suggested that it was possibly another episode in the story of Ulysses. It is also related, in reverse, to one of the unpublished <i>Liber Studiorum</i> plates, <i>Glaucus and Scylla</i> (R. 73), but the figures in 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> are different and greater in number and there is a suggestion of long, low ships across the water on the right.</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
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults bay beach classical myths: gods and heroes cliff figure group groups Odysseus / Ulysses people religion and belief rocky sea seascapes and coasts ship - non-specific society transport: water