Picturesque Views in England and Wales
and Continental Scenes
after Joseph Mallord William Turner
Research by Anne Matthews and Veronica McDonnell
|
Acc No see below
Artist Joseph M W Turner Artist dates 1775-1851 Medium engravings Engravers various Size various Date produced 1832-1838 Donors unknown Date donated unknown Acc No 216 - Turner's Annual Tour of the Seine 1835 20 postcard size (approx) in 1930s frame Chateau Gaillard from the South (J Cousen 1804-1880) Chateau Gaillard from the East (J Smith 1766-1833) Vernon (J T Willmore 1805-1863) Pont de l'Arche (J T Willmore 1805-1863) View on the Seine between Mantes and Vernon (R Brandard 1805-1862) Mantes (W Radclyffe 1783-1855) Bridge of Meulan (J Cousen 1804-1880) St Germains (J B Allen 1803-1876) Saint Denis (S Fisher 1806-1851) Bridges of St Cloud and Sevres (W Radclyffe 1783-1855) The Lanterne of St Cloud (J T Willmore 1805-1863) Bridge of St Cloud from Sevres (W Miller 1796-1882) Paris from the Barriere de Passy (W Radclyffe 1783-1855) Pont-Neuf, Paris (W Miller 1796-1882) Marche aux Fleurs and the Pont-au-Change (W Radclyffe 1783-1855) Hotel de Ville and Pont d'Arcole (T Jeavons 1795-1867) Boulvards, Paris (T Higham 1795-1844) Confluence of the Seine and the Marne (J C Armytage 1802-1897) Meulan (Meulun) (W Miller 1796-1882) Troyes (J C Armytage 1802-1897) Picturesque Views in England & Wales (Note: spellings of place names are kept in their original form) Acc No 217 Lowestoffe, Suffolk 1837 (W R Smith active 1818-1851) Kidwielly Castle, South Wales 1837 (T Jeavons 1795-1867) Keswick Lake, Cumberland 1837 (W Radclyffe1783-1855) Llangollen, North Wales 1837 (J T Willmore 1805-1863) Durham Cathedral 1836 (W Miller 1796-1882) Winander-mere, Westmorland 1837 (J T Willmore 1805-1863) Whitehaven, Cumberland 1837 (W R Smith 1766-1833) Crickieth Castle, Wales 1837 (S Fisher 1806-1851) Rochester, Stroud and Chatham Medway, Kent 1838 (J C Varrall 1795-1855) Acc No 219 Carew Castle, Pembrokeshire 1834 (W Miller 1796-1882) Leicester Abbey, Leicestershire 1834 (W R Smith active 1818-1851) Penmaen-mawr, Caenarvonshire 1834 (J T Willmore 1805-1863) Christ Church College, Oxford 1834 (J Redaway 1797-1859) Arundel Castle and Town, Sussex 1834 (T Jeavons 1795-1867) Llandberis Lake and Snowden, Wales 1834 (J T Willmore 1805-1863) Caenarvon Castle, Wales 1835 (W Radclyffe 1783-1855) Dudley, Worcestershire 1835 (R Wallis 1794-1878) Boston, Lincolnshire 1835 (T Jeavons 1795-1867) |
 Engraving attributed to W Holl the Younger by the British Museum (but possibly his father).
Original self-portrait c1799, oil paint on canvas, support 743 x 584mm
Tate N00458 Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Acc No 258 The Horse Fair, Louth, Lincolnshire 1829 (W Radclyffe 1783-1855) Great Yarmouth, Norfolk 1829 (W Miller 1796-1882) Stonehenge, Wiltshire 1829 (R Wallis 1794-1878) Hampton Court Palace 1829 (C Westwood active 1827-1855) Devonport and Dockyard 1830 (T Jeavons 1795-1867) Dunstanborough Castle, Northumberland 1830 (R Brandard 1805-1862) Carisbrook Castle, Isle of Wight 1830 (C Westwood active 1827-1855) Cowes, Isle of Wight 1830 (R Wallis 1794-1878) Alnwick Castle, Northumberland 1830 (J T Willmore 1805-1863) Acc No 361 The Approach to Venice 1844 Engraver Robert Wallis 1798-1878 size 71.1 x 86.4 cm (27.9 x 34 in) |
ARTIST
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romanticist landscape painter. Although considered a controversial figure in his day, he is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.
He was born, it is thought, on 23 April 1775 at 21 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, the son of William Turner (1745-1829), a barber and wig-maker and Mary, nee Marshall (1739-1804). William was born in Devon but moved to London to follow his own father’s trade and Mary came from a line of prosperous London butchers and shopkeepers. A sister, Mary Anne, was born in 1778 but died in 1783. Turner remained a Londoner and kept a Cockney accent all his life.
His artistic talent was encouraged by his father and in December 1789 Turner entered the Royal Academy Schools, progressing to the Plaister Academy, drawing from casts of ancient sculpture, to the life class in 1792. He augmented his studies with other work experience, including assisting architects and painting scenery for the London stage, music and opera remaining a lifelong passion.
Turner’s varied activities indicate wide interests as well as a need to fund his studies at the Academy. The flourishing market for landscape and antiquarian topography, whether watercolours for exhibition and sale or reproduction in prints and books, provided his first real income. Early trips visiting friends outside London alerted him to the value of sketching on the spot as a basis for studio and commercial work. From the mid-1790s he settled on the routine he maintained for much of his life: touring in summer and working in the studio in the winter months for the following year’s exhibitions, on commissions, or for the engraver. The first engravings after his topographical drawings appeared in the Copper-Plate Magazine (1794-98) and the Pocket Magazine (1795-6).
Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1790, showing watercolours until 1796 when he sent his first oil, Fishermen at Sea. By this time prominent patrons were supporting his wider endeavours, many becoming friends as well as patrons, their country residences becoming homes from home for Turner. Elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1799 and Academician in 1802, Turner was already prosperous in 1800, opening a gallery on the corner of Harley Street and Queen Anne Street in 1804, which could accommodate up to about thirty works.
However, Turner’s dominance did not go unchallenged. At the Royal Academy he could be bumptious, pushy or rude, at times trading insults with colleagues, but his critics made little lasting impact.
From 1806, encouraged by an artist friend, William Wells, he classified the history and practice of landscape art, from mountainous to marine and natural to ideal, in a series of original prints, the Liber Studiorum, which highlighted his own dominance of all these aspects.
In 1817 Turner visited Holland and Belgium to see the battlefield of Waterloo and the Rhineland. His picture, The Field of Waterloo, was exhibited in 1818, his set of fifty Rhine views in watercolour and gouache being purchased by Walter Fawkes, an avid collector. In 1823 he finally obtained a longed-for royal commission, an immense picture of the Battle of Trafalgar, for George IV.
Meanwhile, in 1818, Turner had opened a seam of overtly literary topography, visiting Scotland to illustrate Walter Scott’s Picturesque Antiquities. Illustrations to Scott’s poetry, novels and Life of Napoleon, Byron, the banker-poet Samuel Rogers, Thomas Campbell and Thomas Moore as well as John Milton and the Bible, often designed as vignettes, - a form Turner made very much his own – followed in the coming years. Among living poets, Turner was fondest of Byron’s writing, borrowing more passages from Childe Harold as themes for pictures.
Between 1819 and 1828 Turner visited Italy, travelling to Venice, Rome and Naples. On successive visits to France he explored the Loire in 1826 and Seine from 1821-32. In the intervening years Turner continued his indefatigable routine of touring, painting and working for publishers at home and on the continent.
For six years from 1827 Turner travelled the length and breadth of England and Wales painting iconic scenes featuring ancient buildings, landscapes, coastal resorts and well-known landmarks. These paintings were faithfully engraved by a team of some nineteen artists, themselves very skilled, and the resulting prints were offered for sale to the common man who could not afford an original Turner painting. It was a business venture. He completed 100 watercolours and illustrations, 96 of which were engraved.
The first complete volume of 60 plates was published in book form in 1831. His sketchbooks from those years are housed in Tate Britain. We are fortunate to have several of these prints in the Collection and these were displayed in the Turner and the Picturesque Exhibition held at the Fylde Gallery, Lytham between 22 June - 3 August 2017.
There was an upsurge of work in the last decade of Turner’s working life. John Ruskin had become the standard bearer of a new generation of Turner admirers, now usually professional, middle class or newly rich. However, by 1845 Turner's health was beginning to fail. In 1848, for the first time since 1824, he did not exhibit at the Academy. His last exhibits were in 1849 and 1850.
In 1846 Turner had moved with Mrs Booth, a widow, who was his landlady during his stays in Margate, to 6 Davis Place, overlooking the Thames at Chelsea. His health continued to decline and he died there on 19 December 1851. On 30 December Turner’s remains were interred in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, close to Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence, according to his wish ‘to be buried among my Brothers in Art’.
REFERENCES
Adapted from:
1) Turner Biography compiled by the Lancashire Conservation Studios and available to read at the ‘Turner and the Picturesque‘
Exhibition held at the Fylde Gallery, Lytham from 22 June to 3 August 2017
2) Friends of the Lytham St Annes Art Collection November Newsletter 2017
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romanticist landscape painter. Although considered a controversial figure in his day, he is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.
He was born, it is thought, on 23 April 1775 at 21 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, the son of William Turner (1745-1829), a barber and wig-maker and Mary, nee Marshall (1739-1804). William was born in Devon but moved to London to follow his own father’s trade and Mary came from a line of prosperous London butchers and shopkeepers. A sister, Mary Anne, was born in 1778 but died in 1783. Turner remained a Londoner and kept a Cockney accent all his life.
His artistic talent was encouraged by his father and in December 1789 Turner entered the Royal Academy Schools, progressing to the Plaister Academy, drawing from casts of ancient sculpture, to the life class in 1792. He augmented his studies with other work experience, including assisting architects and painting scenery for the London stage, music and opera remaining a lifelong passion.
Turner’s varied activities indicate wide interests as well as a need to fund his studies at the Academy. The flourishing market for landscape and antiquarian topography, whether watercolours for exhibition and sale or reproduction in prints and books, provided his first real income. Early trips visiting friends outside London alerted him to the value of sketching on the spot as a basis for studio and commercial work. From the mid-1790s he settled on the routine he maintained for much of his life: touring in summer and working in the studio in the winter months for the following year’s exhibitions, on commissions, or for the engraver. The first engravings after his topographical drawings appeared in the Copper-Plate Magazine (1794-98) and the Pocket Magazine (1795-6).
Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1790, showing watercolours until 1796 when he sent his first oil, Fishermen at Sea. By this time prominent patrons were supporting his wider endeavours, many becoming friends as well as patrons, their country residences becoming homes from home for Turner. Elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1799 and Academician in 1802, Turner was already prosperous in 1800, opening a gallery on the corner of Harley Street and Queen Anne Street in 1804, which could accommodate up to about thirty works.
However, Turner’s dominance did not go unchallenged. At the Royal Academy he could be bumptious, pushy or rude, at times trading insults with colleagues, but his critics made little lasting impact.
From 1806, encouraged by an artist friend, William Wells, he classified the history and practice of landscape art, from mountainous to marine and natural to ideal, in a series of original prints, the Liber Studiorum, which highlighted his own dominance of all these aspects.
In 1817 Turner visited Holland and Belgium to see the battlefield of Waterloo and the Rhineland. His picture, The Field of Waterloo, was exhibited in 1818, his set of fifty Rhine views in watercolour and gouache being purchased by Walter Fawkes, an avid collector. In 1823 he finally obtained a longed-for royal commission, an immense picture of the Battle of Trafalgar, for George IV.
Meanwhile, in 1818, Turner had opened a seam of overtly literary topography, visiting Scotland to illustrate Walter Scott’s Picturesque Antiquities. Illustrations to Scott’s poetry, novels and Life of Napoleon, Byron, the banker-poet Samuel Rogers, Thomas Campbell and Thomas Moore as well as John Milton and the Bible, often designed as vignettes, - a form Turner made very much his own – followed in the coming years. Among living poets, Turner was fondest of Byron’s writing, borrowing more passages from Childe Harold as themes for pictures.
Between 1819 and 1828 Turner visited Italy, travelling to Venice, Rome and Naples. On successive visits to France he explored the Loire in 1826 and Seine from 1821-32. In the intervening years Turner continued his indefatigable routine of touring, painting and working for publishers at home and on the continent.
For six years from 1827 Turner travelled the length and breadth of England and Wales painting iconic scenes featuring ancient buildings, landscapes, coastal resorts and well-known landmarks. These paintings were faithfully engraved by a team of some nineteen artists, themselves very skilled, and the resulting prints were offered for sale to the common man who could not afford an original Turner painting. It was a business venture. He completed 100 watercolours and illustrations, 96 of which were engraved.
The first complete volume of 60 plates was published in book form in 1831. His sketchbooks from those years are housed in Tate Britain. We are fortunate to have several of these prints in the Collection and these were displayed in the Turner and the Picturesque Exhibition held at the Fylde Gallery, Lytham between 22 June - 3 August 2017.
There was an upsurge of work in the last decade of Turner’s working life. John Ruskin had become the standard bearer of a new generation of Turner admirers, now usually professional, middle class or newly rich. However, by 1845 Turner's health was beginning to fail. In 1848, for the first time since 1824, he did not exhibit at the Academy. His last exhibits were in 1849 and 1850.
In 1846 Turner had moved with Mrs Booth, a widow, who was his landlady during his stays in Margate, to 6 Davis Place, overlooking the Thames at Chelsea. His health continued to decline and he died there on 19 December 1851. On 30 December Turner’s remains were interred in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, close to Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence, according to his wish ‘to be buried among my Brothers in Art’.
REFERENCES
Adapted from:
1) Turner Biography compiled by the Lancashire Conservation Studios and available to read at the ‘Turner and the Picturesque‘
Exhibition held at the Fylde Gallery, Lytham from 22 June to 3 August 2017
2) Friends of the Lytham St Annes Art Collection November Newsletter 2017
