May 2020

JMW TURNER

The Pantheon, The Morning After The Fire

Signature: 'W Turner Del' lower left

Of interest because it is the year before exhibition of 'The Rising Squall...' and it is roughly the same size. There is anecdotal evidence that the gilt frames required for the Royal Academy Exhibitions were used multiple times by less well off artists. However, having explored this possibility no real evidence has been found. The similarity in size of Turner's 'finished' works 1791 to 1793 is probably just a size that he was comfortable with - small enough to be portable and saleable, large enough to exhibit at the RA.

These works can be dated precisely - the fire was on 14th January 1792.

Turner's 'The Pantheon, the morning after the fire' was painted after the fire of 14th January 1792 and exhibited at the 1792 RA Exhibition No. 472 in the Antique Room. Its size: 15" x 20" (is the same as the original size of the candidate picture).

Turner's only other exhibit that year was 'Malmesbury Abbey' No. 436, also in the Antique Room. Malmesbury Abbey was painted from sketches made the previous year (1791) in the Bristol and Malmesbury Sketchbook. This exhibit must have been completed or near completion in January 1792 when the fire destroyed the Pantheon because clearly Turner stopped working on his planned exhibits and instead went out to sketch the ruined Pantheon and then went on to paint the finished Pantheon exhibit in time to have it accepted for exhibition that year. It is noted that at this time there were no other Bristol and Malmesbury exhibits ready for the 1792 exhibition. (In David Solkin's 'Art on the Line' there are references which indicate that the process of submitting works for exhibition was time consuming. The art work had to be finished and dry of course; it had to be mounted in a gilt frame which, for watercolours, would involve glazing; then there was the secretive practise whereby exhibits were allocated their exhibition rooms and numbers.)

07_00
07_40
08_61
10_10
18_00
18_10
20_10
20_30
20_95
30_17
41_75
44_25
CF Bell errors

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BITMAP burlington 1884 p011 - 9½"x11¾" said to be the 1792 exhibit but later found to be not so - lent by P.C.Hardwick
Exh. No. 77

BITMAP pantheon_D00121; TBQ IXA; 15½"x20¼"

TATE GALLERY - TURNER BEQUEST - 4 Sheets; 6 imagestate_pages_info
D00121 v.Blank
D00122 v.D41453
D00123 v.D40033
D17127 v.Blank

D00121; TBQ IXA; 15½"x20¼"

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...300 10x7......D00122; (vers: D41453); TBQ: IX B; 9¾"x7¼" (poss. trimmed at top) study for the Hardwick watercolour (11¾"x9½")

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D00123; (vers: D40033 insc.' Neale Joiner'); TBQ: IX C; 8¼"x12½" (Trimmed right hand edge)

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facade 17x12; D17127; TBQ: CXCV 156; 12½"x16¾"

1792 Exhibition Catalogue page 5. Royal Academy

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Watercolours and oils were not mixed, they were exhibited in different rooms. Exhibits in the Antique Room (in 1792) were watercolours.

When Cunningham refers to this work its title is slightly different:

Cunningham calls it 'View of the Pantheon' [_PETER_CUNNINGHAM_]