- Artist
- Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 899 × 1203 mm
frame: 1225 × 1530 × 143 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
- Reference
- N00554
Catalogue entry
432. [N00554] The Departure of the Fleet Exh. 1850
THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (554)
Canvas, 35 3/8 × 47 3/8 (89·5 × 120·5)
Coll. Turner Bequest 1856 (31, ‘The departure of the Fleet’ 4'0" × 3'0"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1905.
Exh. R.A. 1850 (482); Arts Council tour 1952 (24).
Lit. Thornbury 1862, i, p. 349; 1877, p. 467; Hamerton 1879, pp. 297–8; Bell 1901, p. 160 no. 268; Armstrong 1902, p. 233; MacColl 1920, p. 26; Davies 1946, p. 186; Finberg 1961, pp. 427, 511 no. 589; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 73; Ziff 1964, pp. 24–7, pl. 3; Lindsay 19662, p. 52; Gage 1969, pp. 98, 187, 244 n. 105; Reynolds 1969, pp. 204–5; Wilton 1979, p. 223.
Exhibited in 1850 with the lines:
‘The orient moon shone on the departing fleet,
Nemesis invoked, the priest held the poisoned cup. ’
—MS. Fallacies of Hope.
Dido and her attendants, on the left, watch the departure of the fleet. For contemporary press criticisms of this picture see No. 429 [N00553].
Published in:
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
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