Absolutely Terrible: The 1831 riots, The Bristol Painters and Turner
In the early 1830s, the political situation in Great Britain was tense.
Electoral reforms promised to benefit large landowners rather than the urban population.
In late 1831, the people of Bristol revolted and, on the night of 30 October, the main seats of civic and religious power were looted and burned. These included the prisons, the Mansion House, the Bishop’s Palace and the elegant Queen Square.
On 31 October, the revolt was brutally suppressed by the army. The riots received considerable press coverage, many commentators likening them to the Apocalypse. Bristol’s main landscape painters, Samuel Jackson, Thomas Rowbotham and William Müller, all portrayed the fires as a terrible and sublime event.
Müller, who had witnessed the riots first hand, made a striking series of oil sketches on paper, which bring the violence back to life. Turner was doubtlessly impressed by the engravings of the Bristol riots.
When on the night of 16 October 1834 an accidental fire destroyed the Houses of Parliament, Turner witnessed the event. He was inspired to paint a series of watercolours and canvases, for which he adapted the model of the Bristol riot engravings.
