Joseph Mallord William TurnerBritish, 1775–1851Dido and Aeneas
Can I see it?
Unknown
Where is “Dido and Aeneas” now? Collection: The National Gallery, London. Unknown.
London, United Kingdom
The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Dido and Aeneas is an 1814 history painting by the British painter J.M.W. Turner that portrays a scene inspired by the Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil. Turner depicts a panoramic view of the city of Ancient Carthage with the lovers Dido and Aeneas in the bottom right.
Although possibly started as early as 1805, Turner displayed the work in 1814 at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition of 1814 at Somerset House.
The story of Aeneas was a favourite of Turner and he returned to It again near the end of his career at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1850.
Today the painting is in the collection of the Tate Britain,having been part of the Turner Bequest of 1856.
Details
- Accession number
- NG494
In the catalog
Sources
- Wikidata
- Image: The National Gallery — J. M. W. Turner · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
In the life of Joseph Mallord William Turner
The whole life1806–1819
Work on the “Liber Studiorum”
For nearly twelve years he worked on about 70 mezzotints — the “Book of Studies”, inspired by Claude’s Liber Veritatis and meant as a manifesto of British landscape art; commercially it failed because of poor handling of sales and distribution, but it did elevate the prestige of landscape painting.
1808–1824
Summers at Walter Fawkes’s Farnley Hall
From 1808 to 1824 he stayed many summers at Farnley Hall near Otley in Yorkshire with its owner Walter Fawkes, becoming almost part of the family, with a room assigned for his exclusive use.
1816
Hazlitt on the pictures of the elements
The essayist William Hazlitt wrote that Turner “delights to go back to the first chaos of the world”, when the waters were separated from the dry land and light from darkness, and described his landscapes as “pictures of nothing, and very like”: pictures of the elements of air, earth and water.
