Turner and the Masters
Tate Gallery, London
Artists have long borrowed from other artists – a theme clearly explored in Picasso: Challenging the Past at the National Gallery earlier this year. Part of an artist’s training was traditionally seen as copying the work of renowned and respected painters of the past. In this sense, the exhibition Turner and the Masters, comes as no surprise. Yet few artists looked so assiduously, thoroughly and with such consummate skill at the work of earlier artists as JMW Turner.
Rightly seen as one of this country’s most inventive and brilliant painters, Turner set himself the task of studying the work of his greatest predecessors and painting his own version of their work or interpreting a composition in their style. This commitment to the art of the great masters – and Turner’s determination to equal or better them – was almost an obsession, reflecting his strength of mind to fulfil his ambition to become a famous artist.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Turner came from a humble background. Born the son of William Turner, a barber and wig-maker in London’s Covent Garden, he was often described as a short, scruffy and “uncouth” Cockney. A precocious child, he started drawing and painting early. By the age of 12, his drawings, mainly copies of prints by other artists, were being offered for sale in his father’s shop window. At the age of 14, he was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy School, which was then the leading training ground for artists, and had work in the RA’s Annual Exhibitions. So great was his renown that he began taking pupils for drawing lessons and at the age of 32 was elected Professor of Perspective at the RA.
During sketching tours of Britain, he produced watercolours of landscape and received private commissions for engravings and topographical views. Although highly skilled, Turner kept an eye on the market and potential patrons, and what might please. Like other artists he toured the continent, visiting the Louvre in Paris, making notes and sketches on the work of Claude, Titian and Poussin, paintings looted by Napoleon. This was later followed by a trip to Italy, where he visited the great artistic centres of Venice, Rome, Naples and Florence – the first of many visits. Initially influenced by Dutch marine painters – although Turner’s “interpretations” tended to be more fiery and full of movement – he later found inspiration in more picturesque and romantic work of artists such as Claude.
With paintings by Turner – who saw himself as a classic artist – shown alongside those by artists such as Poussin, Lorain, Veronese, Titian and Canaletto, direct comparisons can be made between the work of such acclaimed painters and Turner’s response. Some of thr most telling comparisons are with the work of his near contemporary John Constable, who also ranks as one of this country’s greatest landscape painters. Friendly rivalry between them resulted on one occasion with Turner adding a red buoy to a seascape hung alongside a work by Constable that was altogether more colourful and richly textured. On this occasion, Constable was the winner.
Fascinating as it is to see Turner schooling himself in the work of established artists, it is the emergence of his own distinctive style, such as in Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, succinctly explained as a concern with atmosphere and described by one observer as an ability to paint with “coloured steam” that stirs the imagination. It is this elusive quality of magic that makes Turner equal to – or often better than– the artists he admired.
Emmanuel Cooper
Turner and the Masters continues until January
