Turner in Time
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) remains one of Britain’s most renowned landscape painters, a man whose work continues to inspire generations of artists. As part of the Whitworth’s programme marking the 250th anniversary since the artists’ birth,Turner in Time takes a visual journey through the evolution of this extraordinary artist’s style.
Home to the largest publicly held group of his watercolours outside London, the Whitworth’s collection enables us to trace Turner’s development and innovation across time.
To appreciate Turner’s decision to fully embrace watercolour, it is important to consider how the medium was viewed early in his career. The artist began exhibiting watercolours at the Royal Academy’s (RA) Annual Exhibition in 1790, six years before his first oil painting was shown. For artists of this period, the RA provided a vital outlet to display work and attract commissions and patrons. Yet those who worked exclusively in watercolours were often overlooked by the Academy and critics. For Turner, however, watercolour presented new possibilities and markets.
From Turner’s cautious and delicate handling of paint in Malmsbury Abbey (1795); created when he was a teenager, to the expressionistic work A Conflagration, Regensburg, Germany (1840) created in the final decade of his life. This chronological presentation of rarely seen Turner landscapes reveals the true scale of his inventive powers.
Image credit: A Conflagration, Regensburg, Germany: the Neupfarrkirche from an upper floor of the Drei Helmen Hotel, 1840 J.M.W. Turner © the Whitworth, The University of Manchester.
