J.M.W. Turner
The Piazzetta, Venice
© National Gallery of Scotland
J.M.W. Turner
Rome from Monte Mario
© National Gallery of Scotland
Turner in January 2014 – The Vaughan Bequest Keeping with a century-old tradition, the National Galleries of Scotland presents its annual display of Turner watercolours, bequeathed to the Gallery by the distinguished collector Henry Vaughan. 1st − 31st January 2014.]]>
Source: National Galleries of Scotland
When Henry Vaughan donated his impressive collection of watercolours by J.M.W. Turner, he stipulated that the works must not be subjected to permanent display, since continual exposure to light would result in their fading. He also specified that the collection could only be shown in January, when daylight is at its weakest, and since then this annual exhibition has become a much-loved tradition at the National Gallery of Scotland.
J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) was a master of watercolour painting, using the medium to create stunning land and seascapes, topographical views and designs for book illustrations. Henry Vaughan purchased examples from every period of Turner’s career, and chose each with a connoisseur’s eye for quality. The exquisite works in his bequest range from early wash drawings of the 1790s, to colourful and atmospheric watercolour sketches of Continental Europe, executed in the 1830s and 1840s.
For Turner, as for many artists and writers at the end of the eighteenth century, the vastness and violence of nature inspired a sense of awe, or even a terror, which was described as an experience of the ‘Sublime’. It was the opportunity to express these emotions through landscape painting which attracted Turner repeatedly to the mountains of Britain and the Continent, and to paint the savage elemental forces seen in avalanches, storms and mountainous seas. He also visited Venice on three occasions, in 1819, 1833 and 1840, and the Vaughan Bequest features six of the artist’s excellent views of the city. For example, “The Piazzetta, Venice” features a bolt of lightening dramatically illuminates the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica.
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Turner in January 2013 – National Galleries of Scotland (exhibition, 2013)
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