Experiments on Paper JMW Turner’s work on coloured papers

Turner was always experimenting. He tested new materials, techniques and colours in search of exciting ways to present his ideas. Some of Turner’s earliest drawings are on blue paper. This may have been a conscious decision to align himself with a long tradition of European artists who drew on blue paper.

As a mature artist Turner broke free from tradition and created dazzling effects using vividly coloured paint on papers in a range of hues, including blue, grey, brown and green. He often paired his coloured papers with a quick-drying and opaque paint called gouache (or bodycolour), which is watercolour thickened with white pigment.

Turner was very particular about his paper. He needed papers strong enough to withstand his multi-layered technique, from colour washes to scratching out. His favourite coloured paper was manufactured at a mill near Bath, in the southwest of England.

Made from linen fibres, this paper was finished with a gelatin size, a top coating that gave it extra strength. Aimed specifically at artists, it made use of the latest paper-making technology. As well as taking supplies of his favourite paper on sketching tours, Turner also sampled new materials abroad. He bought some dark blue paper in a valley near the Mosel River, Germany, and some brown paper in Venice that he used as the basis for a series of ethereal nocturnal city views.

This display is indebted to the research of art historian Dr Cecilia Powell and paper historian Peter Bower.