Monday, December 4, 2017

J.M.W. Turner - Watercolors and Oils (Selected)

Joseph Mallord William Turner
A Storm (Shipwreck)
1823
watercolor
British Museum

On 24 May 1823 an art critic in the Literary Gazette reviewed ". . . two very splendid Drawings by J.M.W. Turner RA in which the artist has depicted, with his usual ability, the powerful and sublime effect of a Shipwreck, contrasted with the quiet serenity of a Calm.  . . .  The chaotic & destructive character of the former is, we think, hurt by the interference of vivid colour.  How far a sudden burst of sunshine might light up a scene like this, and, as if in mockery of misery, tinge it with the gaudy hues of a fairy vision, we are not prepared to say . . . " 

Kim Sloan comments on this review and on the painting itself in The Lloyd Bequest of Turner Watercolours (British Museum Press, 1998): "Certainly everywhere one looks in the composition figures are being drawn towards disaster: the small boat in the foreground is about to be swamped by the weight of those clinging to its stern, but it is in any case ultimately doomed as it heads for the huge rock before it.  Sunlight may fall on the cliffs in the centre, but only to illuminate the waves that crash over them, and there is no sign of beach, ship or shore to offer hope in the bright chalk cliffs in the distance on the left.  We should recall, however, that shipwrecks were much more a part of life at this time, a symbol of the inevitable triumph of the power of nature.  Seldom was hope an element in the background of scenes of shipwrecks, as it had been in GĂ©ricault's Raft of the Medusa shown in London in 1820, where man rather than nature was the main subject.  Perhaps the reviewer still had this painting in mind when writing of Turner's "mockery to misery," but in Turner's many paintings of shipwrecks nature was nearly always the main protagonist and hope was absent, except perhaps in redemption after death."

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Messieurs les Voyageurs returning from Italy
Night scene in a snow drift upon Mount Tarrar

1829
watercolor, bodycolor
British Museum

"In 1828 Turner made his third visit to Italy.  . . .  Anxious to return to commitments in London, he left Italy in January and experienced a crossing of the Alps so disastrous that he swore he would never leave so late in winter again . . .  an experience he recounted in February in a letter to Charles Eastlake:  " . . . the snow began to fall at Foligno, tho' more of ice than snow, that the coach from its weight slid about in all directions, that walking was much preferable, but my innumerable tails would not do that service so I soon got wet through and through, till at Sarre-valli the diligence zizd into a ditch and required 6 oxen, sent three miles back for, to drag it out . . . consequently half starved and frozen we at last got to Bologna . . . But there our troubles began instead of diminishing . . . all bad till Firenzola being even the worst for the down diligence people had devoured everything eatable (Beds none) . . . crossed Mount Cenis on a sledge - bivouaced in the snow with fires lighted for 3 Hours on Mont Tarate while the diligence was righted and dug out, for a Bank of Snow saved it from upsetting - and in the same night we were again turned out to walk up to our knees in new fallen drift to get assistance to dig a channel thro' it for the coach, so that from Foligno to within 20 miles of Paris I never saw the road but snow!"     

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Rouen - the Left Bank, with shipping beyond
ca. 1827-28
oil on canvas
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Venetian Festival
ca. 1845
oil on canvas
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
View of the Forum, Rome, with a rainbow
1819
watercolor, gouache
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Tintern Abbey
ca. 1794
watercolor
British Museum

Joseph Mallord William Turner
St Erasmus in Bishop Islip's Chapel, Westminster Abbey
1796
watercolor
British Museum

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Basilica of Constantine, Rome
1819
watercolor, gouache
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Colosseum, Rome
1820
watercolor
British Museum

Joseph Mallord William Turner
The North Gallery at night
Figures contemplating Flaxman's statue St Michael overcoming Satan
1827
watercolor
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Dinner in a Great Room with figures in costume
ca. 1830-35
oil on canvas
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Interior of a Great House - the Drawing Room, East Cowes Castle
ca. 1830
oil on canvas
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Reclining nude on a bed
ca. 1840
watercolor, gouache
Tate Britain

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Reclining nude with one arm reaching behind her head
ca. 1834-36
watercolor
Tate Britain