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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth ca. 1842 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"Turner painted many pictures exploring the effects of an elemental vortex. Here, there is a steam-boat at the heart of the vortex. It is famously said that Turner conceived this image while lashed to the mast of a ship during an actual storm at sea. This seems to be nothing more than fiction . . ."
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Stormy Sea with Blazing Wreck ca. 1835-40 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"Turner made extensive studies of shipwrecks in two sketchbooks of about 1805, and produced his first painting of the subject the same year. The theme recurred frequently in his work. The present picture shows a burning boat partially hidden by waves, which are the main subject. Like many of his later sea pictures, the view is from the shore, where a group of onlookers has gathered."
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner A Disaster at Sea ca. 1835 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"This canvas was never exhibited and is probably unfinished, but remains one of Turner's most powerful statements on the Romantic theme of maritime disaster. Its pyramidal composition leaves little doubt that Turner had seen Géricault's Raft of the Medusa (now in the Louvre), described by one critic as 'this tremendous picture of human sufferings' when it was exhibited in London in 1822. Turner's own subject is the wreck of the Amphitrite off Boulogne in 1833. The ship's captain abandoned his cargo of female convicts, claiming that he was only authorised to land them in New South Wales."
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Waves Breaking against the Wind ca. 1840 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"In the 1830s and 1840s Turner made dozens of watercolours and oils based on close observation of the sea from the shore. Some of these were worked up into exhibited pictures, while others were used as studies for paintings, or left in an unfinished state. The shadowy grey shape emerging through the mist may be the harbour wall and lighthouse at Margate, which is the subject of a related canvas."
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Seascape with Storm coming on ca. 1840 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"Unfinished works, such as this, provide an opportunity to scrutinise Turner's techniques closely. Though the process has been interrupted, these pictures reveal much about how he built up his images. Turner began this work with two distinct areas of colour for sea and sky, washed in very broadly. He used a similar method in the large batch of watercolours known as 'colour beginnings' that he produced from the late 1810s onward. The lower of the two areas is an extraordinary golden colour, permeated by passages of grey and black. The surface is further animated with light, but very deliberate, touches of white, green and brown."
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Seascape with Distant Coast ca. 1840 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Breakers on a Flat Beach ca. 1835-40 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"From the late 1820s Turner made regular visits to the fashionable resort of Margate, near the eastern tip of the county of Kent. Travelling by steam boat, Turner could be there in just a few hours after leaving central London. He is said to have particularly prized the coastal light, claiming that the skies over the Isle of Thanet were the most beautiful in Europe. This painting probably resulted from his visits to Margate, though it is not known whether Turner actually created a studio at his temporary lodgings; he could have painted such images from memory back in London."
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of Sea and Sky - Isle of Wight 1827 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"Tuner revisited the Isle of Wight in late July and August 1827, staying with the architect John Nash at East Cowes Castle. In an undated letter he asked his father to send one or if possible two pieces of unstretched canvas, either a piece measuring 6 ft by 4 ft or a 'whole length' – and it was on a 6 ft by 4 ft canvas, cut into two, that he painted the study above [and eight others]. . . . They were rediscovered at the National Gallery in 1905 and divided into separate pieces."
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Southern Landscape with an Aqueduct and Waterfall ca. 1828 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Lake Nemi ca. 1827-28 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Childe Harold's Pilgrimage - Italy ca. 1832 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"The title of this painting refers to Lord Byron's long epic poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Byron saw the remnants of Italy's past as profoundly poignant: the country had, in the intervening years, lost both its liberty and integrity, but was still heartbreakingly beautiful. Turner showed his painting with these lines from Byron's poem:
. . . and now, fair Italy!
Thou art the garden of the world . . .
Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced
With an immaculate charm which cannot be defaced.
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Willows beside a Stream 1805 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"As well as making oil sketches on panel in 1805, Turner also made a series of sketches on canvas. Sometimes he worked on a boat, painting sketches on a roll of prepared canvas, which he presumably tacked in sections over a frame or board. Each subject was painted to a size approximately 3 by 4 feet, which he regularly used for exhibited pictures. This suggests that, potentially, these sketches were the beginnings of pictures which could be refined later in the studio. Some of his exhibited Thames subjects shown after 1805 may even have begun in this way."
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Peace - Burial at Sea ca. 1842 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"Peace shows the burial at sea of Turner's friend, the artist David Wilkie. The cool palette and saturated blacks create a striking contrast to its pair, War, and convey the calm of Wilkie's dignified death, compared to Napoleon's disgrace. The two titles War and Peace are illustrated as abstract concepts, via tone and colour, rather than as actual events. Both works were roundly criticised at the time for their lack of finishing."
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner The Angel standing in the Sun ca. 1846 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"This late painting shows the Archangel Michael appearing on the Day of Judgement with his flaming sword. In the foreground are Old Testament scenes of murder and betrayal: Adam and Eve weeps over the body of Abel (left) and Judith stands over the headless body of Holofernes (right). Turner's pessimistic picture seems to show death everywhere in this fallen world. It may also reflect his concern that his own life and art would be judged. He got his revenge on his critics by showing the painting with lines describing 'the feast of vultures when the day is done'."
– quoted passages from curator's notes at the Tate Gallery, London