J.M.W. Turner Images 2 3 1 5 6 4 7 8 9 11 12 10 14 15 13 For Educational Purposes Only Revised 08/12 1 J.M.W. Turner The Presentation 1. Self-Portrait 1798, oil on canvas, 29” x 23”, Tate Gallery, London Turner painted only two self-portraits and exhibited neither. This portrait, painted at age 23, shows him in a more flattering appearance than anyone elseʼs portraits of him. Turner was already successful and thus he portrayed himself in all the finery of a young English gentleman. Visually he emerges from the darkened space, shining like a bright light, looking into the future. This treatment of light foreshadows Turnerʼs career, where it was a driving force in his romantic depiction of dramatic scenes. The eyes are the emphasized feature; they gaze directly at the viewer and yet beyond. Note the contrast of the artistʼs face, hair and cravat against the dark, negative background. Turner is setting the mood and expressing his feelings Where are the areas of about his artistic standing at the time. He achieves this through contrasts of greatest contrast? color, value and shape. 2. Fishermen at Sea 1796, oil on canvas, 36” x 48”, Tate Gallery, London By the age of 21, Turner had already exhibited at the Royal Academy for seven years, but this was his first oil painting. It attracted critical notice as “proof of an original mind” because the seascape was quite unconventional. The eerily moonlit scene contains three different kinds of light: moonlight through the clouds (here we see his inexperience in oils, the clouds seem to continue behind the moon), moonlight reflected off a stormy sea (Turner frequently returned to the theme of nature in one of its violent moods), and the glow of the shipsʼ lanterns, which reflects the men What do you call a painting in the boat struggling to escape the darkness that surrounds them. with this subject matter? Turnerʼs leitmotiv (leading motif) is stated in this piece and repeated in many variations for the rest of his life. He shows us the dynamic power of water and manʼs struggle against this elemental force. He achieves this dramatic feeling by cleverly arranging his space, placing the viewer almost on the water with the fishing boats. By shortening the distance of the foreground, he thrusts the viewer into the action. The sense of scale and human frailty is provided by the small seabirds in the foreground. Turner frequently uses small animals to emphasize natureʼs power. He often uses the contrast of light and darkness to highlight the drama of man versus nature, which adds to the romantic mood of his paintings. For Educational Purposes Only Revised 08/12 2 J.M.W. Turner 3. SCANNING: The Shipwreck 1805, oil on canvas, 67” x 95”, Tate Gallery, London This painting was Turnerʼs first major work in the Romantic style. The space in the composition did not follow the classical practice of horizontal and vertical lines. Instead the strong diagonals which lead the eye in conflicting directions create a feeling of movement and turmoil. The water dominates the scene, both in color and vastness. It surrounds the people who are dwarfed by it and provide a contrast to its size. This dramatically portrays the Romantic theme of manʼs How did Turner helplessness against the forces of nature. emphasize the action of the shipwreck? Note how Turner links the sea, sky and victims through contrasts in light and dark sections of the sea. The water alternates between dark and light areas, with their contrasting light and dark details. Turner further emphasizes the action by using complementary colors to contrast the red accents of the sailors against the green of the waves. He repeats that color contrast in the sky, thus completing the link and unifying the space within the painting. Fun Fact: Turner based this painting on sketches of actual shipwrecks. Critics panned it, but the appeal to the masses was obvious. The scene was of great interest to the seafaring British, who lost nearly 5,000 citizens in maritime accidents each year. For Educational Purposes Only Revised 08/12 3 J.M.W. Turner Scanning Questions The Shipwreck 1805, oil on canvas, 67” x 95”, Tate Gallery, London Art Elements: What you see. Color • What are the main colors you see? (Blue, red, yellow, green, white, black.) • Which are warm colors and which are cool colors? (Red and yellow are warm; blue and green are cool.) Space • Describe what you see in the foreground, middle ground and background. (The waves are in the fore ground, the ship and people are in the middle-ground, and the sky is in the background.) • Which part of the painting—the foreground, middle ground, or background—seems the most dynamic? (The middle ground.) Art Principles: How the elements are arranged. Contrast • What types of contrasts are seen here? (Light/dark value, large/small size, complementary color contrast.) • Why did the artist make the people so small versus the sea? (To show the power of nature over the insignificance of man.) Emphasis • What is the first thing you see? (The sail of the ship.) • How did Turner emphasize the power of the sea? (Through its size; color and value contrasts.) Technical Properties: How it was made. • What do you call a painting with this subject matter? (Seascape.) • Did Turner paint this from real life or sketches? (Sketches of shipwrecks.) Expressive Properties: How it makes you feel. • How does this painting make you feel? • Is there a message conveyed through this painting? For Educational Purposes Only Revised 08/12 4 J.M.W. Turner 4. Snowstorm; Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps 1812, oil on canvas, 57” x 93”, Tate Gallery, London Hannibal (241-183 BCE) was one of a long line of Carthaginian generals whose goal it was to conquer Rome. He crossed the Alps with elephants, horses and over 20,000 men, winning battles which brought him to the plains of Italy. However, his forces were too exhausted to take Rome. Although Turner uses classical subject matter here, this work is a Where did Turner place the departure from traditional compositions. Usually painters divided the horizon line in this painting? space into horizontal and vertical planes with a readily discernible foreground, middle ground and background. To achieve maximum drama, Turner based his swirling scene on irregular intersecting arcs. A vortex of cloud and mist seems to draw the eye into vast distances until oneʼs eye finally rests on the sunlit Italian plains (Hannibalʼs goal). The huge spiral of wind and snow dominates the eight-foot-long canvas, yet the tiny patch of blue sky in the upper left corner is a sign of hope. By using contrasts in color and size, Turner emphasizes this area in the turmoil of the storm. Such contrasts of light and shade, size, color and texture appear from this time on in Turnerʼs work. In true Romantic style, Turner uses the theme of man dwarfed by the power of natureʼs force. Hannibal is tiny even on an elephant. Note that the horizon is placed in the lower third of the composition. This is a favorite Romantic device for illustrating manʼs power relative to that of nature. By assigning 2/3 of the canvas to the sky and mountains, nature dominates the space in the composition both visually and thematically. Fun Fact: Turner was famous for recording weather conditions based on first hand experiences. He based this painting on his thoughts during a walk into an approaching thunderstorm. 5. Color Study–The Burning of the Houses of Parliament 1834, watercolor on paper, 9” x 12-3/4”, Tate Gallery, London On October 16, 1834, fire gutted the British Houses of Parliament. At that time, wooden sticks were notched to record parliamentary votes and apparently, while burning used voting sticks, the fire got out of control. Turner sketched the scene from across the Thames River, creating a total of nine watercolor sketches during the event. From these sketches, he later produced two oil paintings. Why does the fire seem to Here Turner had a unique opportunity to paint yet another element of visually come toward nature—fire. He saw and painted the fire in terms of light and color. Turner the viewer? contrasts light and dark areas through the use of warm and cool colors. Although fine details are missing in this sketch, the mood is dramatically conveyed by the use of bright warm colors which seem to advance toward the viewer. This serves to emphasize the fire, which is the focal point of the scene and takes up two-thirds of the space. The horizon line is in the lower third of the canvas. This spatial device enhances the mood, composition and theme of Romantic paintings. Additionally, since the lower third of the painting is water, it reflects the colors in the top, unifying and emphasizing the fire in both areas. For Educational Purposes Only Revised 08/12 5 J.M.W. Turner 6. The Burning of the Houses of Parliament 1834-5, oil on canvas, 36” x 48”, Cleveland Museum of Art After witnessing the burning of the Houses of Parliament, Turner returned to his studio with the blaze fixed in his memory and in his watercolor sketches. He painted two oil paintings: this one, which he showed in the spring of 1835 and a second, (now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art), which he showed in the winter of the same year. He has not attempted a realistic depiction of the event, but rather he transforms the space into a kind of aurora borealis, with the fire, sky and water How did Turner draw of the Thames River blending to form an apocalyptic force in the center of the attention to the fire? composition.