To complement its invaluable on-line Turner resources and to make them even more rewarding for users, Tate is now developing a related scheme, Turner Worldwide. This will bring together all works by Turner in collections around the globe to complement the holdings of the Turner Bequest, creating a complete catalogue of the artist’s work and a central on-line resource for anyone studying Turner’s works.
As well as paintings, watercolours and pencil sketches in the museum collections of the UK and other countries, it is hoped that the site can feature the many works, especially watercolours, still in private collections. In conjunction with the Turner Bequest material, these would allow visitors to the site to follow Turner’s ideas from the moment he recorded them on-the-spot, through any related experimental material, and then on to the realisation of finished works.
Some of Turner’s watercolours have been untraced since the early twentieth century, so this is a great opportunity for owners and scholars to collaborate on a project that will shed new light on many aspects of the artist’s work. In the case of some missing works all that is known is a title; this is true for some of his views in Britain, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. But for other works an idea of what they look like can be gained from the engravings that were made from the original watercolours under Turner’s close supervision (eg. Brighthelmston [Brighton]; Ilfracombe; Watchet, Somersetshire; Richmond Castle, Yorkshire; Harlech Castle, North Wales; Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. Many of these engravings can be viewed on Tate’s website for comparison with potential missing works.
Members of the public who have works by Turner that they would like us to feature are invited to contact Andrew Tullis, by letter: Turner Quest, Insight, Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG;fax: +44 (0) 20 7887 8658; or e-mail: andrew.tullis@tate.org.uk, preferably with a photograph of the work(s) in their collection. All ownership details of these works will be treated in confidence and owners can be reassured that none of the names and addresses of the private collectors participating in the project will appear on Tate’s site. To get involved in the project please contact Tate by Spring 2003 if possible.