The Venice paintings: Going to, and returning from, the Ball
In 1845 Turner exhibited four pictures of Venice which captured its glimmering light at different times:
in the morning, at noon, at sunset and in the evening. One pair of paintings shows revellers crossing the lagoon going to a ball in the evening, and returning from a ball in the morning, with Venice in the distance. In his letter to Francis McCracken from Belfast, who commissioned one of the 1845 pair, Turner described the paintings: The Subject [of your picture] is returning from the Ball – the dawn of day when the Moon withdraws her light and rosy Morn begins, – the company Pause. Going to the ball – sun setting and moon rising – over Venice is painted for a gentleman of King’s Lyne: the Campo Santo with Boats and masqueraders proceeding towards the City – Yours returning to St Martino, an Island in the Adriatic. The gentleman from King’s Lyne [sic] was William Wethered, who acquired Approach to Venice from the 1844 exhibition, and had written to Turner seeking ‘another approach to Venice’ later that year. The Times described the Ball subjects as made up of ‘a play of brilliant colours, sparkling as they vanish about smooth waters’ and the Spectator noted that the paintings possessed ‘magical effects of light and colour: the watery floor and aerial sky meet at the horizon in a gorgeous mass of orange and golden tints … the intervening space being filled with the glowing atmosphere’. The Morning Chronicle described Venice, Evening, going to the ball as: The rising moon … with its long gleam of light coming across the waters, is really a curiosity worthy of study. Stuck on with the palette knife, or the thumb, who would think it would give the soft cool light it does? … Regretting his apparently incurable mannerism, we cannot but admit that in the present instance he has somewhat cured it of it’s extravangance. However the following caricatures of Turner’s Venetian paintings appeared in Punch: |
The magazine provided the following verse mocking the caption of MS. Fallacies of Hope which Turner had given to the paintings:
Oh! What a scene! – Can this be Venice? No.
And yet methinks it is – because I can see
Amid the lumps of yellow, red, and blue,
Something which looks like a Venetian spire.
That dash of orange in the back-ground there
Bespeaks ‘tis Morning! And that little boat
(Almost the colour of Tomata sauce,)
Proclaims them now returning from the ball!
This is my picture, I would fain convey,
I hope I do. Alas! What FALLACY!
Both collectors reneged on their commissions, it is thought as a result of the mixed critical response, and they remained in Turner’s gallery until bought by BG Windus.
Turner returned to the same theme in 1846, albeit with greater clarity of form, in response to further requests from Francis McCracken and William Wethered. But again this second pair of Venetian Ball paintings remained unsold and on Turner’s death became part of the Turner Bequest to the Nation giving rise over the years to considerable confusion about the two pairs of paintings of Venice going to, and coming from, the Ball exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1845 and 1846.
Oh! What a scene! – Can this be Venice? No.
And yet methinks it is – because I can see
Amid the lumps of yellow, red, and blue,
Something which looks like a Venetian spire.
That dash of orange in the back-ground there
Bespeaks ‘tis Morning! And that little boat
(Almost the colour of Tomata sauce,)
Proclaims them now returning from the ball!
This is my picture, I would fain convey,
I hope I do. Alas! What FALLACY!
Both collectors reneged on their commissions, it is thought as a result of the mixed critical response, and they remained in Turner’s gallery until bought by BG Windus.
Turner returned to the same theme in 1846, albeit with greater clarity of form, in response to further requests from Francis McCracken and William Wethered. But again this second pair of Venetian Ball paintings remained unsold and on Turner’s death became part of the Turner Bequest to the Nation giving rise over the years to considerable confusion about the two pairs of paintings of Venice going to, and coming from, the Ball exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1845 and 1846.
There are several reasons for this confusion about the two sets of paintings.
In the 2003 Tate catalogue of Turner and Venice Ian Warrell points out that Turner wrote to William Wethered and Francis McCracken: On 14 June 1846 Turner had written to them both a week or so earlier, but had then put the letter for Wethered in the envelope for McCracken, and vice versa. This embarrassing muddle was made even more confusing by Turners’ inability to remember the exact titles of his own exhibits, which he got only partly right in his letter to McCracken on 14 June. Although Turner’s own tendency to forget the titles of his paintings cannot have been helpful, Ian Warrell says the sale of the BG Windus pair of paintings is the root of the ensuing confusion of titles and dates. When the canvases were auctioned by Christie’s in 1853 they were mistakenly identified as the 1846 pair, even though the exhibit numbers cited in the auction catalogue were actually those of 1845. These errors, referring to 1846 instead of 1845, can be seen in bold in the extracts from the Provenance and Memorials of Christie’s volume below. Provenance: Benjamin Godfrey Windus, probably acquired through Thomas Griffith, Turner’s agent; sold at: Windus sale, Christie’s June 20 1853, lot 1, Going to the Ball (San Martino), 520 guineas, sold to: Ernest Gambart, (Trading as Gambart & Junin, The French Gallery, Pall Mall); sold to: Henry Wallis. Windus sale, Christie’s June 20 1853, lot 2, Returning from the Ball, St Martha, 610 guineas sold to: Henry Wallis; the pair sold on March 23, 1854, to: Joseph Gillott, Birmingham. Memorials of Christie's: This pair of pictures were in the B. G. Windus sale of 1853, and there realized 520 guineas and 610 guineas respectively; they came up again for sale in 1878, when they were bought in at 1,200 guineas each ; they eventually passed into the collection of the late James Price, and were sold with his collection in June, 1895. Both these pictures were exhibited at the Royal Academy of 1846, and again at the Royal Jubilee Exhibition in 1887. Neither picture has been engraved. Memorials of Christie's: a record of art sales from 1766 to 1896 |
Even now there is the potential for confusion – in the Late Turner exhibition at Tate Britain in early 2015, in which the Tate’s pair of 1846 paintings were included, Returning from the Ball (St Martha) exhibited 1846, was described with that title on the exhibit label, however clearly written on the frame was the title 543 Venice, Evening, going to the Ball.
Thank you to Ivan Houghton at the Tate for this further information:
Tate N00543 is titled as “Returning from the Ball (St Martha)” whilst its former title is “Venice, Evening, Going to the Ball”. The image below uses the former name painted on the slip frame. It is thought that the National Gallery cut-down the frame for the painting. Tate N00544 is titled as “Going to the Ball (San Martino)” whilst its former title is “Morning, Returning from the Ball”. The image is shown below in its frame.
There is also a tablet for the frame (TGFS 829) extant for the frame which is marked 543. Venice. Morning. Returning from the Ball. 1846. By J.M.W.Turner. R.A. B. 1775. D. 1851. British School D.
Unfortunately the paintings are currently
in the Tate Stores and are not on view. |