Visiting Turner in January ......
Visiting Turner in January.
Each year in January the National Art Gallery in Edinburgh shows its collection of Turner watercolours which were bequeathed to the gallery in 1900 by Henry Vaughan.
I have visited this exhibition on a few occasions most recently January 2019.
I always find the exhibition uplifting and 2019 has been no exception.
One year the view of Durham Cathedral from Prebends Bridge caught my attention in this and a second watercolour Turner captures the majesty and mystery of the Cathedral but using poetic or maybe that should be artistic licence he turns the Cathedral on its axis the better to illustrate the East End rising above the River Wear.
Another year I found myself standing in front of his marvellous image of the Falls of Clyde imagining if not in practice almost hearing the cascading waters as they tumble down the Falls and on into the turbulence of the River.
This year however I found myself reflecting on Turners tremendous capacity for travel and his constant capturing of land and sea scapes from Germany and Italy. The scenic view along the Ligurian coastline by Genoa.
The dreamy almost surreal views of Venice.
Travel provided a key stimulus for Turner. From the 1790s he undertook sketching tours in England, Wales and Scotland, gathering material for watercolours and oil paintings, and gradually discovering the attractions of awe-inspiring mountainous landscapes, which became a major pre-occupation in his work. In 1802 he made his first journey to Continental Europe. He was to return in 1817, after the end of the Napoleonic wars, and from then on made annual visits across the Channel for much of the rest of his life. These journeys were usually undertaken in the summer, and included travels along the great rivers of northern Europe, visits to the Alps, as well as excursions into Italy, most notably to Venice and Rome. Venice, as a maritime city, had an irresistible appeal for Turner, who from his earliest days was attracted to the power and serenity of the sea.
As the exhibition notes explain:
The inspiration of travel is key to any understanding of the artists pursuit of truth as he seeks to illustrate and explain the world he inhabited to those he inhabited it with and beyond his own time to us today.
So this year as I viewed the exhibition I found myself reflecting not only on Turner and his world and his art but on my own world and in particular on the British desire to separate itself from the continent of which it is an inseparable part.
Scotland of course, along with Northern Ireland, voted to remain a part of the European project. So it was particularly difficult to view Turners majestic landscapes of the mountains and rivers of Europe. Turner visited Europe before the Napoleonic Wars and again after fifteen years but from then on his visits were annual.
One can only imagine those journeys from which he returned with hundreds of sketches sketches and paintings often realising more with a few splashes on a small piece of paper than many artists before or since.
Equally one can only imagine what he might have made of the English determination to go its own way, turning its back on a project which was not only economic and political but which was an enterprise designed to secure a long and lasting peace in a continent that had for so many years torn itself apart by war.
As the Brexit tragedy reaches it few last closing scenes we await with baited breath the question of whether the finale will be 'Deal or no Deal'!
It was Thomas Cole, an American artist, who painted a series of works entitled the Course of Empire culminating in his masterwork: The Destruction.
Whether Brexit destroys Europe remains to be seen but it is hard to imagine how the United Kingdom can begin to recover its position in the world by severing links with its closest, and most valuable trading partner or i need whether Brexit will lead almost inevitably to the disuniting of the Kingdom.
It is also impossible to imagine how Turner's contemporaries can visit and comment on the post Brexit relationship with Europe when freedom of movement has been so compromised.
Each year in January the National Art Gallery in Edinburgh shows its collection of Turner watercolours which were bequeathed to the gallery in 1900 by Henry Vaughan.
I have visited this exhibition on a few occasions most recently January 2019.
I always find the exhibition uplifting and 2019 has been no exception.
One year the view of Durham Cathedral from Prebends Bridge caught my attention in this and a second watercolour Turner captures the majesty and mystery of the Cathedral but using poetic or maybe that should be artistic licence he turns the Cathedral on its axis the better to illustrate the East End rising above the River Wear.
Another year I found myself standing in front of his marvellous image of the Falls of Clyde imagining if not in practice almost hearing the cascading waters as they tumble down the Falls and on into the turbulence of the River.
This year however I found myself reflecting on Turners tremendous capacity for travel and his constant capturing of land and sea scapes from Germany and Italy. The scenic view along the Ligurian coastline by Genoa.
The dreamy almost surreal views of Venice.
Travel provided a key stimulus for Turner. From the 1790s he undertook sketching tours in England, Wales and Scotland, gathering material for watercolours and oil paintings, and gradually discovering the attractions of awe-inspiring mountainous landscapes, which became a major pre-occupation in his work. In 1802 he made his first journey to Continental Europe. He was to return in 1817, after the end of the Napoleonic wars, and from then on made annual visits across the Channel for much of the rest of his life. These journeys were usually undertaken in the summer, and included travels along the great rivers of northern Europe, visits to the Alps, as well as excursions into Italy, most notably to Venice and Rome. Venice, as a maritime city, had an irresistible appeal for Turner, who from his earliest days was attracted to the power and serenity of the sea.
As the exhibition notes explain:
The inspiration of travel is key to any understanding of the artists pursuit of truth as he seeks to illustrate and explain the world he inhabited to those he inhabited it with and beyond his own time to us today.
So this year as I viewed the exhibition I found myself reflecting not only on Turner and his world and his art but on my own world and in particular on the British desire to separate itself from the continent of which it is an inseparable part.
Scotland of course, along with Northern Ireland, voted to remain a part of the European project. So it was particularly difficult to view Turners majestic landscapes of the mountains and rivers of Europe. Turner visited Europe before the Napoleonic Wars and again after fifteen years but from then on his visits were annual.
One can only imagine those journeys from which he returned with hundreds of sketches sketches and paintings often realising more with a few splashes on a small piece of paper than many artists before or since.
Equally one can only imagine what he might have made of the English determination to go its own way, turning its back on a project which was not only economic and political but which was an enterprise designed to secure a long and lasting peace in a continent that had for so many years torn itself apart by war.
As the Brexit tragedy reaches it few last closing scenes we await with baited breath the question of whether the finale will be 'Deal or no Deal'!
It was Thomas Cole, an American artist, who painted a series of works entitled the Course of Empire culminating in his masterwork: The Destruction.
Whether Brexit destroys Europe remains to be seen but it is hard to imagine how the United Kingdom can begin to recover its position in the world by severing links with its closest, and most valuable trading partner or i need whether Brexit will lead almost inevitably to the disuniting of the Kingdom.
It is also impossible to imagine how Turner's contemporaries can visit and comment on the post Brexit relationship with Europe when freedom of movement has been so compromised.
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