Dramatic, contemplative, violent, beautiful, dangerous and sublime: Turner and the Sea
The extraordinary quality of the works gathered together for Turner and the Sea confirms his status as the pre-eminent painter of water, and demonstrates his unique ability to represent the elemental power of the sea. The exhibition features items on loan from some of the world’s most prestigious artistic institutions including: The National Gallery, Tate, Yale Center for British Art, British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Royal Collection, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and National Gallery of Art, Washington.
From his transformative Royal Academy paintings of the late 1790s and early 1800s to the unfinished, experimental seascapes he produced towards the end of his life, more than half of Turner’s artistic output depicted maritime subjects. It should come as no surprise that a man who spent much of his life along the coastlines of Britain and Europe, who spent days fishing the river Thames, and who reportedly had himself lashed to the mast of a ship to better paint a storm at sea, captured this subject so often and with such evocative mastery. Nonetheless, the sheer volume of material Turner created in his quest to depict the sea is remarkable.
The Fighting 'Temeraire' (1839), Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), Staffa, Fingal's Cave (1832), 'Now for the Painter' (1827), Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight (1835), Whalers (c.1845) and Calais Pier (1803) will all be shown, alongside works by other major British and European artists, including Willem van de Velde, Claude-Joseph Vernet, Thomas Gainsborough, Nicholas Pocock, John Constable and Richard Parkes Bonington. Turner and the Sea re-evaluates the compelling appeal of the sea for Turner and his contemporaries, and gives visitors the opportunity to see the ways in which he responded to the art of the past, while challenging his audiences with a new and exciting maritime vision.
Further highlights include: Turner's largest painting and only royal commission, The Battle of Trafalgar (1824), one of the jewels in the National Maritime Museum's fine art collection; Fishermen at Sea, the first oil painting Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy; The Wreck of a Transport Ship (c.1810), not seen in London since 1970s, displayed alongside The Shipwreck (1805) and Calais Pier – the first time these three storm paintings have been shown together; and The Wreck Buoy (1849), Turner’s last exhibited marine painting.
* This is Turner's only work by 'royal command' and the largest and most publicly controversial painting of his career. George IV gave him the commission late in 1822 on the advice of Sir Thomas Lawrence, President of the Royal Academy. It was to form a naval pair with Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg's 1795 view of The Battle of the Glorious First of June 1794 (see above), in a patriotic post-war redecoration of the State Rooms at St James's Palace. Lawrence and George Jones – both Turner's friends – were also represented, the former by his portrait of King George III and the latter by paintings of Wellington's victories at Vittoria and Waterloo.
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