The Fifth Plague of Egypt

 
The Fifth Plague of Egypt
Image Rights & Reproductions Requirements
Artist
Creation date
Materials
oil on canvas
Dimensions
48 x 72 in.
Credit line
Gift in memory of Evan F. Lilly
Accession number
55.24
Collection
European
Currently On View In
Charles O. McGaughey Gallery - H213

This dark, tempestuous painting marks the rise of Turner as a full-fledged Romantic painter. Relying on vast scale, dynamic movement, and dramatic subject, his composition appeals primarily to the emotions to communicate its message. Turner's motive for painting this canvas, which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1800, may have been a desire to impress British critics and viewers with his ability to handle serious themes. However, it does appear that the young painter mistitled his picture, as this canvas actually depicts the seventh plague of Egypt, when Moses stretched his arms toward heaven, and thunder, hail and fire rained on the pharaoh and his people.

Purchased from the artist in April 1800 by William Beckford [1759-1844] of Fonthill; Fonthill sale, held at Fonthill Splendens, Wiltshire, 24 August 1807, no. 581; bought by Henry Jeffrey.{1} Thomas Tudor [1785-1855], Wyesham near Monmouth;{2} Thomas Griffith, London,Turner's agent, in 1847.{3} George Young, by 1853; sale at (Christie's, London) in 1866;{4} purchased by Earl Grosvenor in 1866 and until at least 1871.{5} Sir J.C.[John Charles] Robinson [1824-1913], London; {6} bought from him by Sir Francis Cook [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, in 1876;{7} by descent within the Cook family until 1951 when purchased by (Thomas Agnew and Sons, London); Sir Alexander Korda [1893-1956], London, in 1951;{8} sold to (John Mitchell, London) in 1955;{9} purchased for the Indianapolis Museum of Art through Kurt Pantzer with funds from the Lilly family (55.24).

{1} This early provenance appears in Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The paintings of J.M. W. Turner, New Haven, 1977, vol. I, cat. no. 13 (ill.). Unless otherwise noted, all subsequent owners listed below also appear in Butlin and Joll. On the Fonthill sale and Jeffrey's purchases, see Robert J. Gemmett, “’The old palace of tertian fevers:’ The Fonthill sale of 1807,” Journal of the History of Collections, 2010, pp. 1-12.
{2}See Martin F. Krause, Turner in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, 1997, no. 26, p. 98. Tudor’s ownership was first noted by Margery Probyn, “A Letter to the Editor,” Turner Society News, no. 74 (December 1996), p. 13.
{3}Ibid. Probyn had access to Tudor's diary where the sale to Griffith is recorded.
{4}Christie's, London, Modern pictures, 19 May 1866, lot no. 26.
{5}See the article “Modern Pictures,” The Times (London), 21 May 1866 which identifies the purchaser as Earl Grosvenor.
{6} See Robinson obituary in the The Times (London), 11 April 1913. He is often characterized as an “advisor” to Cook in building his collection.
{7} On the Cook family collection, see Elon Danziger, “The Cook collection, its founder and its inheritors,” The Burlington Magazine, July 2004, pp. 444-458. See also the "Concordance of Cook collection paintings" available at http://burlington.org.uk/media/files/cook_concordance.pdf (8/30/11).
{8} See Korda’s statement on Bill of Sale, in IMA Historical Files (55.24). Perhaps Agnew’s only served as an intermediary.
{9}See Bill of Sale, in IMA Historical Files (55.24). Mitchell may have served only as an agent.
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Indianapolis Museum of Art: Highlights of the Collection (2005)

J.M.W. Turner submitted this painting, the largest the twenty-four-year-old artist had yet attempted, to the prestigious annual Royal Academy exhibition in London in 1800. It was his first venture into the most venerated category of his craft: history painting, which celebrated significant events, usually based on a well-known written source. Turner depicted the biblical verse describing the seventh plague of Egypt, which was hail, rather than the fifth, the disease of livestock, as his title suggests. With this large-scale, epic subject, Turner intended to demonstrate his virtuosity. Yet, perhaps because of his background as a landscape painter, The Fifth Plague of Egypt is a scene devoted more to the action of nature than to human activity. Although the figure of Moses can be discerned at lower right, he is cast in shadow and dwarfed by the vastness of the setting. The dramatic color effects Turner used to capture the thunder, hail, and fire become the true subject of this exotic scene.

Turner's star rose rapidly in London, in part due to the success of his early contributions to the Royal Academy exhibitions. He never ceased to champion pure landscape painting, but with time his palette grew more brilliant and his compositions more daring.

And Moses stretched forth his hands toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground. . . .
-Exodus 9:23