Joseph Mallord William Turner, 'Dido building Carthage', 1815

Dido building Carthage

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Room 36

About the work

Overview

Turner’s painting of the North African city of Carthage, founded by Dido, its first queen, was inspired by Virgil’s epic poem, the Aeneid. The figure on the left dressed in blue and wearing a diadem is Dido herself, visiting the tomb that is being built for her dead husband, Sychaeus. The man in a cloak and helmet standing before her is probably Aeneas, the hero of the poem, with whom she will fall in love. Turner painted 10 major paintings on the subject of the Carthaginian empire. The story of the rise and fall of empires was a theme that preoccupied him throughout his life.

This is the first of Turner’s paintings in which he set out to match the seventeenth-century French landscape painter, Claude, in particular Claude’s Seaport paintings. In his will, Turner specified that Dido building Carthage, together with his Sun Rising through Vapour, should be hung in the National Gallery alongside two of Claude’s paintings.

In-depth

Turner’s painting is based on the English seventeenth-century author and poet John Dryden’s translation of the Aeneid, the monumental Latin poem written by the Roman poet Virgil. Regarded as the founding epic of Ancient Rome, the poem tells the story of the Trojan prince Aeneas. Following the defeat of Troy by the Greeks, Aeneas spends years wandering with his followers before finally settling in Italy. Believing it to be his destiny to found a city, he becomes the ancestor of the Romans. During his travels, Aeneas is shipwrecked at the North African city of Carthage, whose queen, Dido, falls in love with him. After he departs for Italy without her, she kills herself in despair. Eight of Turner’s 11 pictures about Aeneas relate to his association with Dido.

Aeneas’ story, with its themes of exile, destiny and the founding of a new civilisation through the creation of Rome, clearly appealed to Turner. The rise and fall of empires such as Rome and, in this instance, Carthage, was also a theme that preoccupied him for nearly forty years. He painted 10 major paintings on the history of Carthage. Although not a series, these pictures are meditations on history, and the emergence and collapse of grand human ambitions – this painting is paired with The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire (Tate gallery, London). These grand narratives frequently concern a historical figure whose fate is subject to forces beyond their control. For Turner, the story of Carthage was also the tragic story of Dido and Aeneas.

Standing on the left and dressed in blue, Dido visits the tomb being built for her husband, Sychaeus. He had been killed by her brother, from whom she had escaped to establish Carthage which she ruled as its first queen. The man in a cloak and helmet standing before her is probably Aeneas. At this point in the story, the tragic outcome of their liaison lies in the future. Wearing a diadem and accompanied by a Black servant and young purse-bearer, Turner’s Dido may have been inspired by a recent operatic production. Rather than a love-struck or doomed victim, she is a commanding figure of strength, as described in Dryden’s line: ‘Amidst the crowd she walks serenely great.‘

This is the first of Turner’s paintings in which he intended to match the seventeenth-century French landscape painter, Claude, in particular his Seaport paintings. These typically include a wide stretch of water, extending to the horizon in the picture’s centre, flanked by classical buildings and tall trees rising from the quay. A crowd of figures and scenes of harbour life usually complete the scene. Although Turner broadly follows Claude’s model, his own painting is filled with architectural features, human activity and highly textured detail not found in Claude’s more classical compositions.

In Turner’s second will, made in 1831, he specified that the picture, together with his Sun Rising through Vapour, should hang ’in perpetuity' in the then newly built National Gallery alongside Claude’s A Seaport and Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Dido building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire
Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner
Artist dates: 1775 - 1851
Date made: 1815
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 155.5 × 230 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit: Turner Bequest, 1856
Inventory number: NG498
Location: Room 36
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Joseph Mallord William Turner
Frame: 19th-century English Frame (original frame)

Provenance

Specifically bequeathed by Turner to the National Gallery, with Sun rising through Vapour, to be ‘placed by the side of Claude’s “Seaport” and “Mill”’, on condition that they were accepted and so placed by the Gallery within twelve months of Turner’s death on 18 December 1851; by agreement with Turner’s executors, placed in the National Gallery in accordance with Turner’s wishes, formally entering the Collection upon the Court of Chancery’s decree settling litigation over Turner’s will, 19 March 1856.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Judy Egerton, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings’, London 2000; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2009

Turner and the Masters

Tate Britain

23 September 2009 - 31 January 2010
2012

Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude

The National Gallery (London)

14 March 2012 - 5 June 2012

Bibliography

1853

Anon., 'Turner and Claude', Art Journal, V, 1853, p. 74
1853

A.A. Watts, 'Biographical Sketch of J.M.W. Turner, Esq., R.A.', in Liber Fluviorum, London 1853
1857

J. Ruskin, Notes on the Turner Gallery at Marlborough House, 1856, London 1857
1857

R.N. Wornum, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, with Biographical Notices of the Painters: British School, London 1857
1860

C.R. Leslie, Autobiographical Recollections, ed. T. Taylor, London 1860
1879

P.G. Hamerton, The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London 1879
1895

C.E. Smith, Journals and Correspondence of Lady Eastlake, London 1895
1902

F. Goodall, Reminiscences, London 1902
1903

J. Ruskin, Modern Painters, eds E.T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, The Works of John Ruskin, 39 vols, London 1903
1908

W.G. Rawlinson, The Engraved Works of J.M.W. Turner, 2 vols, London 1908
1910

A.J. Finberg, Turner's Sketches and Drawings, London 1910
1928

W.T. Whitley, Art in England 1800-1820, Cambridge 1928
1930

W.T. Whitley, Art in England 1821-1837, Cambridge 1930
1946

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, London 1946
1946

M. Davies, Paintings and Drawings on the Backs of National Gallery Pictures, London 1946
1951

S. Cockerell, 'Letter', The Times, 1951
1959

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1959
1961

A.J. Finberg and H.F. Finberg, The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., 2nd revised edn, Oxford 1961
1963

J. Ziff, 'Backgrounds: Introduction of Architecture and Landscape: Turner's Lecture First Given in 1811', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXVI, 1963, pp. 124-47
1974

G. Wilkinson, The Sketches of Turner, R.A., 1802-1820, London 1974
1974

J. Gage, Turner and Watercolour: An Exhibition of Watercolours Lent from the Turner Bequests at the British Museum (exh. cat. British Museum, April - September 1974), London 1974
1977

K.D. Nicholson, J.M.W. Turner's Images of Antiquity, Phd Thesis, University of Pennslyvania 1977
1978

A. Macintyre and K. Garlick (eds), The Diary of Joseph Farington, vol. 5, New Haven 1978-1984
1979

V. Surtees, Reflections of a Friendship: John Ruskin's Letters to Pauline Trevelyan, London 1979
1980

J. Ziff, 'Review: The Paintings of J. M. W. Turner by Martin Butlin, Evelyn Joll', Art Bulletin, LXII/1, 1980, pp. 166-71
1980

M. Wilson, Claude: Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba and Turner: Dido building Carthage (exh. cat. The National Gallery, London, 14 February - 13 April 1980), London 1980
1980

A. Wilton, Turner and the Sublime (exh. cat. Art Gallery of Ontario, 1 November 1980 - 4 January 1981; Yale Center for British Art, 11 February - 19 April 1981; British Museum, 15 May - 20 September 1981), Toronto 1980
1981

W. Gaunt, Turner, Oxford 1981
1982

M. Butlin and E. Joll, L'opera completa di Turner 1793-1829, Milan 1982
1982

C. Powell, 'Infuriate in the Wreck of Hope: Turner's "Vision of Medea"', Turner Studies, II/1, 1982, pp. 12-8
1983

M. Kitson, 'Turner and Claude', Turner Studies, II/2, 1983, pp. 2-15
1984

M. Butlin and E. Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., New Haven 1984
1987

A. Wilton, Turner in his Time, London 1987
1988

K. Nicholson, 'Style as Meaning: Turner's Late Mythological Landscapes', Turner Studies, II/2, 1988, pp. 45-54
1988

J. Ziff, 'Turner as Defender of the Art Between 1810-20', Turner Studies, VIII/2, 1988, pp. 13-25
1990

S. Ginzburg, Turner, New York 1990
1990

K.D. Nicholson, Turner's Classical Landscapes: Myth and Meaning, Princeton 1990
1990

E. Shanes, Turner's Human Landscape, London 1990
1990

E. Shanes, Turner: The Masterworks, London 1990
1990

G. Finley, 'Love and Duty: J.M.W. Turner and the Aeneas Legend', Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, LIII, 1990, pp. 376-90
1990

A. Wilton, Painting and Poetry: Turner's verse book and his works of 1804-1812 (exh. cat. Tate Gallery, 27 June - 16 September 1990), London 1990
1991

J.A. Heffernan, 'Painting Against Poetry: Reynolds's Discourses and the Discourse of Turner's Art', Word and Image, VII, 1991, pp. 275-98
1994

A. Thomas, An Illustrated Dictionary of Narrative Painting, London 1994
1997

A. Bailey, Standing in the Sun: A Life of J.M.W. Turner, London 1997
1997

J. Hamilton, Turner: A Life, London 1997
1997

M.D. Rincón de Arellano, 'Turner visto por sus contemporáneos', Goya, 256, 1997, pp. 235-40
1997

K.D. Kriz, 'Dido versus the Pirates: Turner's Carthaginian Paintings and the Sublimation of Colonial Desire', in M. Rosenthal, C. Payne and S. Wilcox (eds), Prospects for the Nations: Recent Essays in British Landscape, 1750-1880, New Haven 1997, pp. 231-60
1998

J. Egerton, The British School, London 1998
1999

G. Finley, Angel in the Sun: Turner's Vision of History, Montreal 1999
2000

Egerton, Judy, National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings, revised edn, London 2000
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2002

I. Warrell, Turner et le Lorrain, Paris 2002

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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