By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
Turner 's The Opening of the Walhalla, oil on canvas, R.A. 1843, Turner Bequest, Tate Britain ( Wilton P401). Built in the form of a Doric temple, the Walhalla - a pantheon of German national worthies - was designed by Leo von Klenze and built above the Danube near Regensburg between 1830 and 1842. Turner had seen the building on his return journey from Venice in 1840, and later painted this imaginary scene of its opening.
It got a mixed reception both in England and Munich, where Turner sent it in 1845, the Spectator noting that 'the group of figures and emblems... is one of those licences of art which Turner exercises to give effect to his pictures.' Ruskin was also puzzled, as he told Mrs. John Simon in a letter of 28 November 1857, that Turner
never draws one beautiful or even pretty human face or form... his hand tries to do it sometimes - to paint the landing of Prince Regents - the opening of the Walhalla - or the parting of Romeo and Juliet - and it seems so amazing that he should be able to paint a fawn rightly, but not an Italian girl - and a pig, but not the Prince Regent - and a donkey, but not a German philosopher' ( Works, 36.270).
J.M.W. Turner 1775-1851
The Opening of the Walhalla 1842
Oil on mahogany, 112.5x200.5cm
Exhibitions: RA 1843 (14); Munich 1845; Whitechapel 1953 (96, repr.); RA Sept-Nov 1972 (1186)
Engraving:
Engraved by C. Cousen, 1859
Steel engraving, 14.6x26.7cm
Engraved for the Turner Gallery, 1859-1875
Provenance: Turner Bequest 1856; transferred to the Tate Gallery, London, 1929
Collection: Tate Gallery, London