Turner

The Master Painters

by Eric Shanes, Stéphanie Angoh (Photographer)

At fifteen, Turner was already exhibiting View of Lambeth. He soon acquired the reputation of an immensely clever watercolourist. A disciple of Girtin and Cozens, he showed in his choice and presentation of theme a picturesque imagination which seemed to mark him out for a brilliant career as an illustrator. He travelled, first in his native land and then on several occasions in France, the Rhine Valley, Switzerland and Italy. He soon began to look beyond illustration. However, even in works in which we are tempted to see only picturesque imagination, there appears his dominant and guiding ideal of lyric landscape. His choice of a single master from the past is an eloquent witness for he studied profoundly such canvases of Claude as he could find in England, copying and imitating them with a marvellous degree of perfection. His cult for the great painter never failed. He desired his Sun Rising through Vapour and Dido Building Carthage to be placed in the National Gallery side by side with two of Claude’s masterpieces. And, there, we may still see them and judge how legitimate was this proud and splendid homage. It was only in 1819 that Turner went to Italy, to go again in 1829 and 1840. Certainly Turner experienced emotions and found subjects for reverie which he later translated in terms of his own genius into symphonies of light and colour. Ardour is tempered with melancholy, as shadow strives with light. Melancholy, even as it appears in the enigmatic and profound creation of Albrecht Dürer, finds no home in Turner’s protean fairyland – what place could it have in a cosmic dream? Humanity does not appear there, except perhaps as stage characters at whom we hardly glance. Turner’s pictures fascinate us and yet we think of nothing precise, nothing human, only unforgettable colours and phantoms that lay hold on our imaginations. Humanity really only inspires him when linked with the idea of death – a strange death, more a lyrical dissolution – like the finale of an opera.

Genres: Art, Cultural, Nonfiction

371 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Eric Shanes was a professional painter, independent art historian, and lecturer who was a leading expert on Turner. The vice president of the Turner Society, he authored many books on the artist.

Reviews

[Kalliope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turner stretched the paper onboard and after plunging them into water, he dropped the colours onto the paper while it was wet, making marblings and gradations throughout the work.

His completing process was marvelously rapid, for he indicated his masses and incidents, took out half-lights, scraped out highlights and dragged, hatched and stippled until the design was finished.

This short introduction to the paintings by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1881) is excellent given its superb selection of sixty of his works, in full colour.





The accompanying text is also a rewarding read as a presentation of the painter. It follows mostly a chronological and factual line, but does pay closer attention to the topographical grounding of his landscapes; to his trips to Switzerland, France and Italy which broadened his vision and the spectrum of his light; to his experimental approach to technical boundaries, as the quote from a contemporary above shows; and to his focus on light in light of the findings in optics during his time, which led him to concentrate further on the primary colours as the basis for his compositions.

Shanes also displays how far Turner's work traveled through his prolific life, departing from his first exhibited St Anselm's Chapel, with part of Thomas-à-Becket's crown, Canterbury Cathedral, from 1794




until his last works from the late 1840s, with his Sunrise with Sea Monsters





and his The Visit to the Tomb, one of the four in his last exhibition of 1850.





I have missed some discussion of his relationship with the young John Ruskin (1819-1900), since his views of Venice would colour the vision of the young critic and would, eventually, find reflections in the writer who sought to recapture foregone time.

[Adia · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a brief introductory book to the life and works of J.M.W. Turner. includes 60 of his paintings, many of them his well known seascapes. the writing is pretty simple, but informative. i also learned that this was the Turner that painted The Great Fall of the Reichenbach, which as a Holmes enthusiast i feel i should have known.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book on Turner and it had me catching my breath and in awe at every turn of the page. A great selection of his work, with a rather bare-bones text that gives an outline of both his artistic career and methods, without bogging things down. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to dip their toe into Turner.

[Marcos Malumbres · Rating 4 out of 5]

The selection of the paintings is excellent and the brief narrative on some details of Turner’s live is also quite interesting. There are however a couple of details that I missed. The biography is very descriptive and there is little reference to the person, and the relationship between the painter and his paintings. Second, and this one got me crazy, whereas the description of biographical data follows (relatively) a chronological order, the presentation of the paintings is almost random, and it is absolutely disconnected from the text. Sometimes a painting is referred in the text but the painting itself is shown 50 pages earlier in the book without any specific rationale. To me this is a major problem with the book. It is like reading a book with advertisement every each other page, nice advertisements, but disconnected from the text.