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Jane Asher
actress, writer and businesswoman |
Jane Asher on Turner
Sun Setting Over a Lake, circa 1840
© Tate, London 2002 |
'Of course if I could describe in any way adequately just what this picture manages to convey there would have been no point in Turner painting it: in my book a great work of art is by definition beyond words. The title aptly says what it IS - what it doesn't say is what it DOES. To stand and look at a 'real' sun setting over a lake would be a pleasant, perhaps inspiring experience: how is it that Turner manages to engender in me a feeling that is way beyond that - something far deeper and more universal than the effect of gazing at the genuine article?
Very hard to describe without falling into the trap of dangerously emotive words like 'spiritual' or 'transcendental' - pretty meaningless to those of us who like to think we look at the world through rational-coloured glasses. It's the magnificent way he conveys the quality of light in all his work that does it, of course, and nowhere does he do it more dramatically or effectively than here, producing awe-inspiring mystery and beauty on a flat piece of canvas. Magic!'
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