The Destruction of Sodom by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851). ?Exhibited 1805. Oil on canvas, 1460 x 2375 mm. Courtesy of Tate Britain (Accession no. NO0474. Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856). Click on image to enlarge it.
Commentary from Tate Britain Online (2010)
Turner was thirty when he painted this ambitious historical landscape, which shows his admiration for the grand art of the seventeenth-century painter, Nicolas Poussin, which he had studied in the Louvre during his visit to Paris in 1802. The subject is from the Book of Genesis. It shows Lot and his two daughters (to the right) fleeing the city of Sodom as 'the Lord rained brimstone and fire' in divine retribution for the sins of its citizens. Lot's wife (on the right of the group) is being turned into a pillar of salt as she turns to look back.
Last modified 14 May 2016