Oil paint on wood
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>
Garreteers Petition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
animals: mammals
attic
bed
bedroom
book - non-specific
candle
cat
domestic
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
fine arts and music
furnishings
heating and lighting
inspiration
interiors
literary
man
natural phenomena
objects
people
picture
poet
reading, writing, printed matter
shadow
work and occupations
<p>The scene shows a young poet struggling for inspiration late at night in his garret, a cramped attic room. On the wall is an image of Mount Parnassus, the mythological home of the Greek Muses, indicating his high ambitions. Though the point of the image seems to be satirical, the picture was exhibited at a time when Turner was writing poetry himself so likely sympathised with the poet’s predicament. Turner rarely painted explicitly figurative works but may have been inspired to do so due to his rivalry with David Wilkie whose genre subjects were extremely popular in London’s exhibitions.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2024</em></p>
painting oil paint wood
20 April 2009 – 4 October 2009
2009-10-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-04-20
William Blake: The 1809 Exhibition
Collection based display
4 August 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
4 August 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
2010-08-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-08-04
Early Turner
Collection based display
26 September 2022
26 September 2022
2022-09-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-09-26
Gallery 15
Collection based display
The Garreteer’s Petition
support: 552 × 791 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
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<p>The scene shows a young poet struggling for inspiration late at night in his garret, a cramped attic room. On the wall is an image of Mount Parnassus, the mythological home of the Greek Muses, indicating his high ambitions. Though the point of the image seems to be satirical, the picture was exhibited at a time when Turner was writing poetry himself so likely sympathised with the poet’s predicament. Turner rarely painted explicitly figurative works but may have been inspired to do so due to his rivalry with David Wilkie whose genre subjects were extremely popular in London’s exhibitions. </p>
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2024-02-27T00:00:00
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<p><b>100. </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-garreteers-petition-n00482" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00482</span></a>]<b> The Garreteer's Petition</b> Exh. 1809
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (482)
<br/>Mahogany, 21 3/4 × 31 1/8 (55 × 79); painted surface 20 7/8 × 30 3/4 (53 × 78)
<br/>Inscribed; see below
<br/><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (17, ‘The Garreteer's Petition’ 2'6" × 1'9 1/2"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1809 (175); Turner's gallery 1810 (17, ‘Poet's Garrett’); Tate Gallery 1931 (28); <i>British Narrative Paintings</i>
C.E.M.A. tour 1944 (36); R.A. 1974–5 (134).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, p. 293; 1877, pp. 429–30; Eastlake 1895, i, p. 189; Bell 1901, p. 87 no. 116; Armstrong 1902, p. 222, repr. p. 17; Whitley 1928, p. 144; Davies 1946, p. 185; H.F. Finberg 1951, pp. 384, 386; Finberg 1961, pp. 159, 472 no. 149, 513 no. 157m; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, pp. 20–22; Jerrold Ziff, ‘J.M.W. Turner on Poetry and Painting’, <i>Studies in Romanticism</i>, iii 1964, pp. 207–12, pl. 1; Gage 1965, p. 79, repr. p. 77, fig. 30; Gage 1969, p. 136; Wilton 1980, p. 140; Marks 1981, pp. 342–5, pl. 6.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Exhibited in 1809 with the following verses:
<br/></p>
<p>‘Aid me, ye Powers! O bid my thoughts to roll
<br/>In quick succession, animate my soul;
<br/>Descend my Muse, and every thought refine,
<br/>And finish well my long, my <i>long-sought</i> line.’</p>
<p></p>
<p>These verses, with the possible exception of those for <i>Dolbadern Castle</i> and <i>Caernarvon Castle</i> in the 1800 R.A., are the first of his own by Turner in an exhibition catalogue. There are drafts on the back of the study in pen and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> for the picture, CXXI-A, which is itself inscribed with references to Vida's ‘Art of Poetry’, ‘Translations, &amp;c’, ‘Hints for an Epic Poem’, ‘Reviews Torn upon Floor and Paraphrase of Job’ and ‘Coll. of Odds and Ends’; on the door is an ‘Almanack of Fasts and Feasts’ (repr. Ziff, <i>op. cit</i>., pl. 2). In the oil <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> the torn reviews appear on the floor and on the door there is a ‘TABLE OF FASTS/AND [?] ... FEASTS’ with two columns of simulated writing headed ‘FASTS’ and ‘FEASTS’; above the door Turner has added, hanging askew, a framed ‘Plan and Elevation’ of ‘MOUNT PARNASSUS &amp;&amp;&amp; [?]’.
<br/>
<br/>There is a companion sketch of an artist's studio, CXXI-B (repr. Gage 1965, fig. 29, Gage 1969, pl. 31, Ziff, <i>op. cit</i>., pl. 3, and Wilton, <i>loc. cit</i>.), again with inscriptions and with draft verses on the back. Whereas <i>The Garreteer's Petition</i> somewhat ennobles its model, Hogarth's <i>Distressed Poet</i> (Birmingham City Art Gallery, repr. in colour Ronald Paulson, <i>Hogarth: His Life, Art, and Times</i> 1971, i, pl. 154a), Turner makes fun of the artist in his verses:
<br/></p>
<p>‘Pleased with his work he views it o'er &amp; o'er
<br/>And finds fresh Beauties never seen before’</p>
<p></p>
<p>while his apprentice cares not ‘for taste beyond a butter'd roll’. Turner had already exhibited a somewhat similar subject the year before in <i>The Unpaid Bill</i> (No. 81).
<br/>
<br/>This seems to have been painted on 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/p/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a> already covered with what is apparently ordinary household paint. This extends beyond Turner's paint on the top and bottom edges. On the left there is a narrow strip of uncovered panel; on the right Turner's paint extends right up to the edge, which may have been cut after the painting was completed. In any case the panel seems to have been trimmed before Turner used it and after reinforcing battens and strips 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/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> were added to the back.
<br/>
<br/>Pasquin, writing in the <i>Morning Herald</i> (4 May 1809), followed his praise of <i>Spithead</i> (No. 80 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-spithead-two-captured-danish-ships-entering-portsmouth-harbour-n00481" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00481</span></a>]) with an attack on Turner for, in this work, attempting 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/g/genres" title="Glossary definition for 'Genres'"><span>genre</span></a> to which he was not suited, concluding with ‘the insulted Garrateer thus indignantly admonishing the Royal <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>Academician</span></a> ...
<br/></p>
<p>‘Avaunt! presumptuous, proud R.A.
<br/>What wouldst thou here, so pert, so gay?
<br/>May thine own Gods forsake thee:
<br/>You've spoil'd the tadpole of a thought,
<br/>Which Genius from Apollo caught,
<br/>For wich the Devil take thee!’</p>
<p>
<br/><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
adults animals: mammals attic bed bedroom book - non-specific candle cat domestic emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fine arts and music furnishings heating and lighting inspiration interiors literary man natural phenomena objects people picture poet reading, writing, printed matter shadow work and occupations