Turner: Phaidon Colour Library

Phaidon Colour Library

by William Gaunt

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) is the most masterly of British painters. His work exploits the great traditions of European painting, while anticipating the development of modern art in the twentieth century. As a Romantic, he was from his earliest works sensitive to the dramas found in land and seascapes, though increasingly light and colour alone became all-important to him. He travelled through England, France, Italy and Switzerland, and his views are possibly the most imaginative evocations of these countries ever painted.

The essay by William Gaunt, an acknowledged authority on British art who died in 1980, was originally published in 1971. Notes to the plates and many black-and-white illustrations were added in 1981, making this the perfect introduction to one of the greatest British masters.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

William Gaunt (1900–1980) was a British artist and art historian.

After serving briefly with the Durham Light Infantry in the First World War, Gaunt went on to Worcester College, Oxford, and graduated with honours. He completed an MA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and found work as a painter, art historian, art critic, novelist and travel book writer.

During the Second World War he was commissioned by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee to paint London city bomb sites.

Gaunt was drawn to the Pre-Raphaelites, whom he considered to be underappreciated, and wrote his most enduring book on the subject, The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy (1942), followed by further studies of Victorian art, The Aesthetic Adventure (1945) and Victorian Olympus (1952).

Reviews

[Pete daPixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to give this four stars. I've always loved Turner. Was he the painter who gave birth to impressionism, almost a century before the style became fashionable in France? William Gaunt's Colour Library, once past the rather long introduction, contains forty eight sample colour plates that span the output of this artists work. Turner captures the maelstrom of natural forces in 'plein air' many years before the term was first used by French impressionist artists. His works with watercolour and gouache are some of my favourites. 'The burning of the Houses of Parliament' from 1834 and 'The Fighting Temeraire', score high in my all time list of English art.
Great book, just to look at the pictures! Don't really want to return this to the library.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know absolutely nothing about art or art theory or art history, so a lot of the text went over my head and I can't speak to whether it was a good analysis of Turner's work or not. Even though I couldn't comprehend everything, I enjoyed simply the fact that someone cares so much about this art that they spent so much time and thought on it. I, of course, also appreciated all the images of the art, and was able to occasionally catch the drift of what the author was speaking about with some of the paintings. I appreciated most the contrast of light in many of his paintings. My laptop's desktop is a revolving background of art pieces that I like and more than a few from this book made it into the rotation.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I think I've learnt a few more art critiquing terms than I knew before. A good book in discussing the paintings (although reading the introduction meant flicking through to the paintings all the time, which was a bit annoying, rather than putting these comments beside the images), but not a lot of background information, which would have been useful.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice history of Turners life and development of his style.....lots of colour plates and discussion of the paintings.