9 rooms in Turner Collection
Walk among the works of Turner, and explore some of his many paintings, sketches and watercolours
Joseph Mallord William Turner was the outstanding British painter of his generation. He challenged the conventions of the time, with new techniques and subject matter. Turner often shocked his contemporaries with his loose brushwork and vibrant colour palette. His work often portrays the development of the modern world.
Turner made his name with watercolours of topographical landscapes and buildings. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790, when he was 15. He became known for the atmospheric effects he produced through his experiments with light and shade. From the early 1800s, he began to prepare his canvases with a white ground. This gave his oil paintings the luminous glow seen in his watercolours. In the 1820s, he adopted new pigments to make his colouring more brilliant and varied.
Turner was a leading exhibitor at the Royal Academy for many years. He also showed work at his own gallery, which he opened in 1804. Early in his career, he recognised the importance of making his works widely accessible, and he reproduced many of his paintings as prints. Turner's handling of paint became progressively looser and deliberately less precise. This caused controversy among his critics.
Many of the paintings most admired today would not have been considered ‘finished’ by Turner or his peers. These unfinished works were discovered in Turner’s studio after he died in 1851. They joined the finished and exhibited pictures acquired by the nation with the Turner Bequest.
This display is part of a Tate Britain Collection Route
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