The reason why I love Turner

Today I want to write about my favourite painter (who I "met" during High School): Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 - 19 December 1851).

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Self Portrait’, about 1799, Tate Gallery, London
© The Art Archive / Tate Gallery, London / Eileen Tweedy

He is described as the greatest landscape painter of the 19th century and I totally agree with this definition, because his artworks seems not to be only painted on an aseptic canvas: they make you feel the strength of the colours and the power hidden inside the paintings. He combined watercolour with oil paints and he managed to create lightness, fluency, and ephemeral atmospheric effects.

Fishermen at Sea exhibited in 1796 was the first oil painting exhibited by Turner at the Royal Academy

I love not only some of them, but what I love is the evolution behind his paintings, the majestic ones full of details which seems to be photos

Raby Castle, the Seat of the Earl of Darlington (1817), The Walters Art Museum.

Chicester canal (1828), Tate Gallery, London.

and the other ones, more undefined but with a special study of the light and the atmosphere:

Norham Castle sunrise (1845), Tate Gallery, London

Sunrise with sea monsters (1845), Tate Gallery, London

In his paintings, the subjects were dramatic and Romantic (especially in the early years): he painted landscape compositions including historical, architectural, mountainous, pastoral and marine. One can find historical facts but also events from the Bible or from Roman and Greek mythology

The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons (1835), Cleveland Museum Of Art

Ancient Rome; Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus (1839), Tate, London

Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus (1829), National Gallery, London

All of his paintings are full of emotions, even if they recount the passing of events: he was interested in the strength of nature against men (which is a Romantic topic) and, to do so, he represented shipwrecks, eruptions, fire and storms

Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (1812), Tate Gallery, London

The slave ship (1840), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

When I look at one of his paitings, I feel astounded by such beautiful colours and also I'm very impressed by the scenes he painted, which seem not to stay still on the canvas, but to keep on living in another dimension of greatness and eternal glory.

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See you soon

Yours, Silvia