Plucking the Turkey
- Artist: Henry Walton
- Date: exhibited 1776
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 762 x 635 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Plucking the Turkey” by Henry Walton, an oil on canvas dated 1776. Walton, a late‑eighteenth‑century English painter, shows us a young cookmaid seated in a plain kitchen, bent over a turkey that she is carefully plucking. The scene is ordinary, yet it captures the everyday rhythm of domestic life – a woman in a lilac bedgown, green petticoat, and blue apron, with a basket beside her and a simple chair under her. Walton’s brushwork is smooth and restrained, echoing the influence of the French genre painter Chardin, but rendered with a distinctly English touch.
The painting was first exhibited in London in 1776, just as Britain was entering its war with revolutionary America. The turkey, an animal closely associated with the fledgling United States, might hint at a subtle political comment – a pro‑British gesture in a time of growing tension. Yet the work can also be read simply as a quiet, dignified portrayal of a servant’s daily task, a snapshot of domestic routine that would have been familiar to any 18th‑century household.
Overall, Walton’s piece sits comfortably in the tradition of “fancy pictures,” genre scenes that combine the charm of ordinary subjects with an attentive, almost photographic observation of light and texture. It offers a window into the private spaces of the past, reminding us that even the most modest moments can carry layers of meaning.
See it in person
Plucking the Turkey is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
