Joseph Mallord William Turner’s expressive, light-filled works are breaking through the dismal January weather in their annual exhibition at the National Gallery. Bequeathed in 1900 by Henry Vaughan under the stipulation that they be “exhibited to the public all at one time free of charge during the month of January in every year,” the romantic landscape master’s thirty one watercolours now feature in Turner as Inspiration, curated by Anne Hodge.
Crowned the “king of painting nature” by many of his contemporaries, Turner is unique in his capacity to capture the sublime beauty and terrifying violence of the natural world. Whether a tranquil scene from his European tour across sun-kissed Rome and Venice, or a turbulent snapshot of a marine vessel tossed by ocean tempests off the British coasts, he takes on a position as translator of nature, emotively transposing it onto canvas to be imagined, interpreted, and felt. Turner is an artist in exquisite control of his tools, a deftness of technical skill and a deep understanding of colour and light combining to produce works of vivid intensity. In a medium such as watercolour, delicate and sensitive workmanship is required; just one brushstroke illuminates the beam of the sun or the intricate architecture of the Venetian city. Turner lets the landscape sing for itself, forming in the mind of the reader out of the often mist-cloaked, fog-covered background. It is this skill at manifesting a whole world of fine details and nuance in such subtle, modest watercolours that makes him one of the most popular constants of the National Gallery’s collection, capable of illuminating one of the darkest rooms in the Gallery with a mere 31 canvases, most no larger than a sheet of A4 paper.
Turner’s composed artistic hand belies a controversial character. He allegedly fastened himself, Odysseus-like, to the mast of a ship in the midst of a storm to experience the true staggering power of the sea—a power which his paintings certainly don’t lack. To avoid being counted as present in any property in the 1841 Census, he rowed a boat out onto the Thames for the night—an illustration of his reclusive, private nature. It seems his eccentric personality merely sharpened the vigour of his art; but as he grew older, he became increasingly morose, his gallery falling into disrepair. Nonetheless, as this happened, his art only intensified. Supposedly, his last words were “the Sun is God”—a proclamation, religious vision, and artistic ethos all in one.
A first in the annual exhibition’s history, Turner as Inspiration includes a selection of watercolours and prints from nineteenth- and twentieth-century artists inspired by Turner. These artists mirror Turner’s dual focus on the mercurial and the serene, leaning on his incisive grasp of light, colour, and atmosphere in their own works. Both British and Irish, contemporaneous with Turner and present-day, those included serve to highlight the wide reach of his influence and honour his enduring legacy. As the Gallery states, this exhibition is fundamental in underscoring “how Turner continues to inspire new artistic generations”. In the works of Hercules Brabazon (born in 1821, died in 1906), this influence is clear. Airy Venetian scenes dominate, though much less is left to the imagination, his use of soft whites and blues filling in much of this waterworld’s landscape. The Irish artist Jennifer Lane (born in 1952) echoes Turner’s focus on nature, but her style is quite disparate. Using woodcuts as her primary medium, she etches and paints sharp, spiny trees and plants against a backdrop of an expansive sky. Regardless of their differences, in the Gallery’s darkened rooms, these delicate works all shine together—and the January exhibition, twinned with exhibitions in the national galleries of London and Edinburgh who were also bequeathed some of Vaughan’s collection, couldn’t come at a better time. Turner offers a rejuvenating and timely reprieve as the mortar-and–pestle grinding of university life kicks back into gear once more. Though January was chosen to protect his watercolours from light-induced deterioration, it is quite poetic that light was, for Turner, his great inspiration. Radiating hues of golden sunlight, deep blue skies, and crimson sunsets, these works sanctify the sun, offering a glimpse of the summer light to come.
