Book Description

J. M. W. Turner is one of the greatest artists the world has ever known. Both admired and ridiculed in his lifetime, his output was prolific and astonishingly varied. Focusing on 125 works, this book provides a fresh and lively survey of all aspects of the Tate Turner collections, introducing not only familiar masterpieces but many other works--such as sheets from sketchbooks and prints--that are less often seen. These highlight the extraordinary breadth of achievement of this great Romantic painter.In an extended introductory essay David Blayney Brown discusses Turner's life and work, revealing the contrasts and paradoxes that abound in both: as a painter he looked both backwards and forwards, bridging the gap between the 18th century and modernism, compelled constantly to reexamine and reinvent his own art. ... Read more

Book Description

This attractively produced and priced portable volume follows the grand master of 19th century landscape painting as he travels the European countryside, finding inspiration and themes for his renowned drawings and paintings.

Like many nineteenth-century Britons, William Turner was a passionate traveler, and the landscapes, cities, and people he encountered on his journeys throughout Europe provided the stimulus for a number of his sketches, watercolors, and paintings. Turner on Tour documents the artist’s European travels between 1802 and 1845, and provides fascinating insights into the ways the land and architecture shaped Turner’s work over two of his most prolific periods. Inge Herold’s engaging text reveals how the artist’s often harrowing experiences on boat, on foot, and by carriage throughout France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland brought Turner to a new appreciation of his Romantic themes, and allowed him to incorporate his observations of man’s interactions with nature into some of the most moving and profound landscapes of all time. Nearly every page of this volume features stunning reproductions, most of them in full color, revealing Turner’s brilliant treatment of natural light and its effects on land and sea. ... Read more