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13 November 2006
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18 February 2007
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Turnerian Pastoral Norham Castle belongs to a group of ten late oil paintings that are all derived from the set of mezzotint designs that Turner developed between 1807 and around 1819, entitled the Liber Studiorum (Book of Studies). Turner conceived this engraving project partly as a record of his paintings, but more broadly as a manifesto of the range of landscape art, thereby claiming for this genre a higher status in the accepted academic hierarchy of subjects. He classified his landscapes into six types: Architectural; Historical; Mountainous; Marine; Pastoral and E.P. The last was his own version of the classical idylls of the celebrated painter Claude Lorrain (about 1604/5-82); the initials ‘E.P.’ may have meant Elevated or Epic Pastoral. Throughout his life Turner aimed to surpass the widely-revered achievements of Claude, whose landscapes depicted the countryside surrounding Rome. Turner effortlessly absorbed Claude’s principles and transplanted them to a British setting, as in Norham Castle (though the mezzotint was actually engraved as a straightforward ‘Pastoral’ subject). By the end of Turner’s life, however, Claude was no longer held in such high esteem. Turner’s great ally, the critic John Ruskin, in particular, was profoundly critical of what he felt wasa lack of truth to nature and an inability to particularise. However,Turner’s decision to revert to the group of Liber Studiorum subjects that most closely adhere to Claude’s prototype shows a defiant statement of his own artistic aims and allegiances.
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Liber Studiorum: Frontispiece, with Europa and the Bull, engraved by J.C. Easling 1812 Etching and mezzotint on paper Presented by A Acland Allen through the National Art Collections Fund 1925 [+] View this work in the Collection 
This plate was created as the title-page for Turner’s Liber Studiorum, although it was not issued until the serial publication had already been running for five years. Many of the details allude to Turner’s aims for the project, but at the centre of the sheet is a scene depicting the mythical abduction of Europa by the god Zeus, disguised as a docile bull. The couple supposedly made their way to Crete, where Europa had three children. The mythical subject was also one frequently painted by Claude, but was not Turner’s first choice for his title-page. However, it was one that he reworked in oils in the mid-1840s at the same time as Norham Castle, Sunrise.
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Europa and the Bull, c.1845 Oil on canvas Taft Museum, Cincinnati [+] View this work in the Collection (part of Turner Worldwide) 
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Woman and Tambourine, engraved by Charles Turner 1807 Etching and mezzotint on paper 184 x 267 mm Presented by A Acland Allen through the National Art Collections Fund 1925 [+] View this work in the Collection 
The influence of the imagery of Claude Lorrain is readily apparent in this scene (above), one of the earliest in the Liber Studiorum. Turner would have known some of Claude’s depictions of the banks of the River Tiber near Rome, either in the form of paintings or from Richard Earlom’s later engravings (on display in the adjacent showcase). Rather than a specific place, Turner’s image seeks to evoke a poetic sense of nostalgia for the lost classical world, a theme common to many of his mature paintings of Italy.
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Landscape with a Woman and Tambourine, c.1845 Tochigi Prefectural Museum, Utsunomiya, Japan [+] View this work in the Collection (part of Turner Worldwide) 
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
The Castle above the Meadows, engraved by Charles Turner 1808 Etching and mezzotint on paper 177 x 261 mm Presented by A Acland Allen through the National Art Collections Fund 1925 [+] View this work in the Collection 
This subject has echoes of some of the paintings Claude made of hilltop towns such as Tivoli. Its wide open foreground draws the viewer subtly towards the distant summit across a series of receding planes. Turner used much the same formula in his view of Norham Castle.
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Landscape, c.1845 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool [+] View this work in the Collection (part of Turner Worldwide) 
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
The Bridge in Middle Distance, engraved by Charles Turner 1808 Etching, aquatint and mezzotint on paper 181 x 262 mm Presented by A Acland Allen through the National Art Collections Fund 1925 [+] View this work in the Collection 
When Turner reworked this image nearly forty years later the resulting painting included a more specific depiction of the two bridges over the Thames at Walton in Surrey, to the west of London. He had made many studies in the area around 1805, when he worked directly from his subject in his most naturalistic manner. The act of transforming the classicism of this Liber subject into a recognisable British scene was a further example of his insistence on the continuing vitality of the Claudian prototype.
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Landscape with Walton Bridges, c.1845 Private collection, Japan, c/o Sotheby’s [+] View this work in the Collection (part of Turner worldwide) 
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Drawing of the Clyde, engraved by Charles Turner 1809 Etching and mezzotint on paper 182 x 265 mm Presented by A Acland Allen through the National Art Collections Fund 1925 [+] View this work in the Collection 
Turner visited the Falls of the Clyde near Lanark during his 1801 tour of Scotland, a journey which also took him to Norham for the second time. Rather than recording the industrial development of the mill town of Lanark, Turner sketched the already celebrated scene of the picturesque waterfall. In the large watercolour of the scene that he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802, he improbably introduced a group of female bathers purporting to be naiads, or nymphs. As at Norham, his response to the setting was infused by his reading of patriotic poetry, in this case of a text by Mark Akenside (1721-70).
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Landscape with the Falls of Clyde, c.1845 Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Liverpool [+] View this work in the Collection (part of Turner Worldwide) 
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
The Junction of the Severn and the Wye 1811 Etching, aquatint and mezzotint on paper 181 x 263 mm Presented by A Acland Allen through the National Art Collections Fund 1925 [+] View this work in the Collection
Turner’s ideas of landscape were crucially shaped by his early experience of the scenery of Wales. This view is one of a handful in the Liber depicting scenes on the River Wye, several of which were already a staple part of the picturesque repertoire. The river acts as the border with Wales, just as Norham highlights the way the Tweed forms a natural boundary with Scotland. In this case, the viewer looks back to England across the distant River Severn Turner’s late oil painting of this scene exerted an important influence on French artists from the 1880s onwards, as it was one of the few genuine pictures by Turner then available in Paris.
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Landscape with the Junction of the Severn and the Wye, c.1845 Musée du Louvre, Paris [+] View this work in the Collection (part of Turner Worldwide)
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Inverary Pier. Loch Fyne. Morning 1811 Etching, aquatint and mezzotint on paper 179 x 261 mm Presented by A. Acland Allen through the National Art Collections Fund 1925 [+] View this work in the Collection 
Turner visited Inverary on his 1801 tour of Scotland. Typically he chose to recreate dawn in his image, thereby giving greater mass to the still dark outline of the surrounding peaks. His later reworking of the mezzotint has sometimes been mistaken for an alpine subject, highlighting the anomaly that it is derived from a print classified as ‘Mountainous’, when in fact most of the other late paintings relate to the more refined pastoral scenes. It is possible therefore that the painting has more in common with the unresolved oils of Switzerland than with the prevailing Claudian impetus of the rest of the group. 
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Inverary Pier. Loch Fyne, Morning, c.1845 Yale Center for British Art, New Haven [+] View this work in the Collection (part of Turner worldwide)
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Bridge and Goats, engraved by F.C. Lewis 1812 Etching, aquatint and mezzotint on paper 182 x 255 mm Presented by A Acland Allen through the National Art Collections Fund 1925 [+] View this work in the Collection 
Turner’s idea of the Italian landscape was fully formed long before he set off on his first tour in 1819 partly due to his knowledge of Claude’s pictures. In this print however, Turner creates a variation on the forms and structures that regularly featured in the earlier painter’s work. The pastoral ideal is enhanced by the inclusion of a shepherd and his family, whose untroubled existence the viewer perhaps envies. When reworking the image in the 1840s, Turner utilized his own experience of Italy to particularize the topographical setting, drawing on his recollections of Spoleto north of Rome.
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Ponte delle Torre, Spoleto, c.1845 Tate Britain [+] View this work in the Collection 
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Solitude, engraved by William Say 1814 Etching and mezzotint on paper 177 x 257 mm Presented by A Acland Allen through the National Art Collections Fund 1925 [+] View this work in the Collection 
Turner’s image is closely derived from a painting by Claude now in the National Gallery entitled Landscape with Psyche outside the Palace of Cupid. In the nineteenth century it was also called ‘The Enchanted Castle’, and was known principally in its engraved form. Claude’s picture exerted a powerful influence on the imaginations of the Romantic generation, most notably inspiring the poet John Keats in the final lines of his Ode to a Nightingale (1819).
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
A Castle on a Bay. Solitude, c.1845 Tate Britain [+] View this work in the Collection 
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Norham Castle on the Tweed, engraved by Charles Turner 1816 Etching and mezzotint on paper 179 x 262 mm Presented by A Acland Allen through the National Art Collections Fund 1925 [+] View this work in the Collection 
Turner seems to have etched most of the plates for the Liber Studiorum himself. Several of the images were thereafter engraved in mezzotint by Charles Turner (no relation). The crisply defined passages of light and shade, and the sharp lines of this image could not be more different from Turner’s late oil painting. At the same time that he was working on the canvas Turner seems to have made further changes to the original Liber copper printing plate, intensifying the sunrise effect. He may have been considering a new edition, prompted by John Ruskin’s desire to acquire a complete set of the prints. 
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Norham Castle, Sunrise, c.1845 Tate Britain Oil on canvas support: 908 x 1219 mm frame: 1060 x 1370 x 70 mm [+] View this work in the Collection | |
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