Paths to Fame: Turner Watercolours from The Courtauld at Courtauld Institute of Art on artrepublic.com
Exhibition running from Oct 30 2008
until Jan 25 2009
Nine magnificent watercolours, recently bequeathed by the late Dorothy Scharf, are among a collection of thirty outstanding works by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) held at The Courtauld Gallery. Paths to Fame: Turner Watercolours from The Courtauld, will be the first opportunity to enjoy this superb collection in its entirety. The exhibition is generously sponsored by The Bank of New York Mellon. The Courtauld's collection includes work from across the artist's career, ranging from an important early view of the Avon Gorge, Bristol, made when Turner was just sixteen years old, to examples of the monumental highly finished watercolours of his maturity and the celebrated expressive late works. The son of a Covent Garden barber, Joseph Mallord William Turner spent his early years acquiring the traditional skills of architectural draughtsmanship, learning also from earlier topographical watercolourists such as Paul Sandby and Edward Dayes. He showed precocious talent, entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1789 at the age of thirteen and having a watercolour accepted for the prestigious annual exhibition only two years later. He was elected an Associate at twenty-four, the youngest age allowed, becoming a full Academician in 1802. The Academy was then housed in the Strand block of Somerset House, now home to The Courtauld Gallery. Focusing on Turner's early career, the opening section of the exhibition explores the ways in which he set about achieving success. When only sixteen he embarked on the first of his many sketching tours around the country. An avid self-promoter, Turner was quick to recognize the value of prints for disseminating his art to the widest possible audience, and from the 1790s his career revolved around travelling, painting and publishing. Accurately rendered topographical watercolours such as Chepstow Castle produced as a model for an engraving (the second print to be made after his work) for the popular Copper-Plate Magazine, show a technical mastery that was to earn him a fortune as a mature artist. A later section of the exhibition is dedicated to his watercolour designs for book illustrations, most notably Colchester, Essex made in preparation for an engraving for Picturesque Views in England and Wales (1827-38), the largest and most ambitious series of engravings ever produced from Turner's designs. OPENING HOURS: Daily: 10.00 - 18.00 Image Credits: J.M.W Turner (1775-1851), Margate Pier, c.1835-40, Watercolour and gouache, 22.4 x 29.2 cm, © The Courtauld Gallery J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), Chepstow Castle, c. 1793, Watercolour, 21 x 30 cm, © The Courtauld Gallery J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), Colchester, Essex, c. 1825-26, Watercolour, 28.7 x 40.7 cm, © The Courtauld Gallery J.M.W Turner (1775-1851), Dawn after the Wreck, c. 1841, Watercolour and gouache, 25.1 x 36.8 cm, © The Courtauld Gallery  |
