Mercury and Argus

By Kind Permission of a Private Collection

Turner 's Mercury and Argus, oil on canvas, exhibited Royal Academy 1836, exhibited British Institution 1840, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa ( Wilton P367); engraved in 1841 by J.T. Willmore ( Rawlinson 650).

Cited more often in Modern Painters I than any other single painting by Turner, Mercury and Argus was admired by Ruskin for its 'truth' of tone and space, and for its tree drawing. Along with Juliet and her Nurse, it was one of the 1836 Royal Academy exhibits in which he saw how 'the characteristics of his later manner were developed with his best skill and enthusiasm' ( Works, 35.217).

Ruskin had commended this picture in his defence of Turner, written in 1836 but unpublished, A Reply to "Blackwood's" Criticism of Turner: 'Now the manner in which Turner makes his visible sunbeams walk over his foregrounds towards the spectator, is one of his most peculiar beauties; and in this very picture of "Mercury and Argus" it is inimitably fine, - and is produced by the exquisite perspective of his shadows, and the singular lurid tints of his reflected lights.' ( Works, 3.638).

It would presumably have been available for viewing in Turner's gallery until it had passed into the collection of Joseph Gillott, by 1845. But Ruskin may also have based some of his comments on the engraving of 1841 by Willmore, which, as Luke Herrmann has pointed out, superbly reproduces the 'perfect painting of thick leafy foreground' which Ruskin admired ( Herrmann, Turner Prints p.226). Turner had written in 1836 that 'An engraver has fallen in love with [the painting],' and Willmore agreed to execute the print at his own expense.

SW

J.M.W. Turner 1775-1851
Mercury and Argus 1836
Oil on canvas, 150x109.2cm
Exhibitions: RA 1836 (182)
Engraving:
Engraved by J.T. Willmore, 1841
Steel engraving, 52.4x38.8cm
Provenance: Joseph Gillot by 1845; sold to Charles Birch; bt from Birch by John Naylor; bt from Naylor by Agnew 1863; John Graham; sale Christie's 30/4/1887 (93), bt Laurie; Sir Donald Alexander Smith by November 1888; sold by the third Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal to the National Gallery of Canada through Agnew, in 1951
Further Comments: The engraving of 'Mercury and Argus' was dedicated to Sir Robert Peel, celebrating his election as Prime Minister in 1841. A second engraving of the same subject, also by Willmore, was published in the Turner Gallery, 1859.
Collection: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa