Joseph Mallord William Turner, St Martin’s Church, Cochem c.1839. Tate.
This room presents a selection of 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.
after Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Temptation on the Pinnacle, engraved by F. Bacon published 1835
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Temptation on the Pinnacle c.1834
In addition to three designs for 'Paradise Lost' (see no.54), Turner contributed two episodes from 'Paradise Regained' for Macrone's 1835 edition of Milton's 'Poetical Works'. This vignette shows the third and final temptation endured by Christ in the wilderness, when challenged by Satan to throw himself down from the highest pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem. Turner depicts the moment of Christ's triumph over Satan who can be seen hurling himself away from the scene in anger and frustration. This new acquisition fills an important gap in the Gallery's representation of the later period of Turner's involvement in book illustration.
Gallery label, February 1992
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Keswick Lake, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’ c.1830–2
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sketches and Inscriptions in a Copy of Rogers’s ‘Poems’ c.1830–2
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study for Moore’s ‘The Epicurean’; Sky for ‘The Nile’ c.1837–8
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for ‘A Tempest’, Rogers’s ‘Poems’ c.1830–2
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Loch Lomond, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’ c.1830–2
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, St Julienne’s Chapel, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’ c.1830–2
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Unidentified Vignettes: Cod on the Beach c.1835
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, St Pierre’s Cottage, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’ c.1830–2
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Château Gaillard from the South (Vignette) c.1833
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Perugia, for Rogers’s ‘Italy’ c.1826–7
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Unidentified Vignettes: Wreck Buoy, Gurnet, Dogfish, and Plaice c.1835
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Unidentified Vignettes: Mackerel on a Beach c.1835
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Vignette of A Tempest - Voyage of Columbus 1831
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Vignette of A Tempest - Voyage of Columbus 1831
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sunset: A Fish Market on the Beach c.1835
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
after Joseph Mallord William Turner, Camp Hill, Hastings, engraved by Edward Goodall c.1836
A poet himself, albeit of somewhat dubious talent, Turner responded well to commissions for illustrations of verse, such as the poetical works of Thomas Campbell. In this small vignette Turner portrays Camp Hill near Hastings, on the night before the famous battle in 1066. This early proof bears Turner's (almost illegible) handwritten pencil notes instructing the engraver Edward Goodall. Turner warns that the foreground shadows are too strong and he indicates that the rays of the moon should become more pointed and starlike.
Gallery label, September 2004
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Unidentified Vignettes: Lobsters on the Beach c.1835
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study; Sea and Sun c.1826–36
During the 1830s Turner collaborated with the poet Samuel Rogers to provide illustrations for a volume of poems, a number of which had nautical themes. The designs, such as Tornaro, were highly finished and detailed watercolours in vignette form (small-scale images with no defined border). Nevertheless the emphasis on the effects of colour and light on the sea and sky owe much to Turner’s experimental, loose studies.
Gallery label, April 2005
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study for ‘The Expulsion from Paradise’, for Milton’s ‘Poetical Works’ c.1834
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study of a Temple, with Rainbow, possibly for Moore’s ‘The Epicurean’ c.1835–8
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study for Moore’s ‘The Epicurean’; Alciphron’s Swoon c.1837
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study for Moore’s ‘The Epicurean’; Descent into the Well c.1837–8
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Bay of Naples, for Rogers’s ‘Italy’ c.1826–7
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Hannibal Passing the Alps, for Rogers’s ‘Italy’ c.1826–7
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Forum, for Rogers’s ‘Italy’ c.1826–7
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, A Villa. Moon-Light (A Villa on the Night of a Festa di Ballo), for Rogers’s ‘Italy’ c.1826–7
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Tivoli, for Rogers’s ‘Italy’ c.1826–7
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Tornaro, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’ c.1830–2
Turner’s watercolour for Tornaro was sensitively translated into black lines and engraved on steel by Robert Wallis. The engraving accompanied the following lines:
‘The shepherd on Tornaro’s misty brow,
And the swart seamen, sailing far below,
Not undelighted watch the morning ray
Purpling the orient - till it breaks away,
And burns and blazes into glorious day!’
John Ruskin described the prints in Rogers’s Poems as ‘the loveliest engravings ever produced by the pure line’.
Gallery label, July 2008
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artworks in Experiments on Paper
Art in this room
after Joseph Mallord William Turner
The Temptation on the Pinnacle, engraved by F. Bacon
published 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner
The Temptation on the Pinnacle
c.1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Keswick Lake, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’
c.1830–2
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Sketches and Inscriptions in a Copy of Rogers’s ‘Poems’
c.1830–2
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Vignette Study for Moore’s ‘The Epicurean’; Sky for ‘The Nile’
c.1837–8
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Study for ‘A Tempest’, Rogers’s ‘Poems’
c.1830–2
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