Juliet and her Nurse
| Juliet and her Nurse | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | J. M. W. Turner |
| Year | 1836 |
| Dimensions | (35 inches × 47.5 inches ) |
| Location | Private collection |
Juliet and her Nurse is an
St. Mark's Square to watch fireworks exploding against a blue and yellow sky. On a balcony in the lower right corner stand Juliet and her nurse, two characters from the play Romeo and Juliet by English playwright William Shakespeare.[2] In a departure from Romeo and Juliet's Verona setting, Turner incongruously placed the characters in Venice instead.[3]
Turner's first visit to Venice was in 1819 and he made his second visit in 1833, where he appears to have taken a room with rooftop views. Juliet and her Nurse was painted from an elevated perspective overlooking St. Mark's Square to the east with St Mark's Campanile dominating the composition.[4] In 1842, it was engraved by George Hollis with the title St Mark's Place, Venice.[5]
When it was exhibited at the
Literary Gazette complained about the placement of the two Shakespearean characters in the lower right corner, describing them as "perched, like sparrows, on a house-top". John Eagles writing for Blackwood's Magazine unfavourably critiqued the painting as "a strange jumble -- 'confusion worse confounded." John Ruskin wrote that the review had raised in him "black anger" and prompted him to write a response in defence of Turner. He wrote, "Turner is an exception to all rules... In a widely magnificent enthusiasm, he rushes through the ethereal dominions of the world of his own mind -- a place inhabited by the spirit of things... Turner thinks and feels in color; he cannot help doing so... Innumerable dogs are baying at the moon; do they think she will bate of her brightness, or abberate from the majesty of her path?"[6]
On 29 May 1980, the painting was auctioned at
Whitney Museum of American Art, whose family had owned it since 1901.[6] The buyer was Argentine heiress Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat.[8]
In The Washington Post, Paul Richard described the painting as an example of Turner's "poetic, visionary, cataclysmic pictures".[6]
See also
References
- ^ Gowing, Lawrence (1966). Turner: imagination and reality (PDF). MoMA. p. 39.
- ^ "Turner's 'Juliet and Her Nurse' Expected to Set Auction Record". The Washington Post. 11 January 1980.
- ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8, retrieved 2025-01-10
- ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8, retrieved 2025-01-10
- ^ Tate. "'St Mark's Place, Venice: Juliet and her Nurse, engraved by George Hollis', after Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1842". Tate. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
- ^ a b c "1836 Painting Sells for $6.4 Million". The Washington Post. 29 May 1980.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
- ^ "Why do certain works still set auction records during recessions". The Art Newspaper. 2010-04-30. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
