Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sun Setting over a Lake c.1840. Tate.
9 rooms in JMW Turner
The paintings in this room have become celebrated examples of Turner’s boundary-pushing late style. And yet in his own lifetime they were unknown
These works were among the many unfinished paintings found in Turner’s studio after he died. Ethereal and luminous, they show Turner’s trailblazing focus on light and colour. There are no outlines – edges are blurred and colours blend into one another. Turner used thin layers of oil paint to create this effect, much like the way he used watercolour.
In some of these paintings Turner returns to decades-old subjects, re-imagining them in his mature style. He may have been aiming to exhibit these works, to show the public how his vision had evolved. Artists’ studios are places of experimentation. Turner’s was a very private space. He could be secretive about his working practices but also indulged in showmanship – on occasion he finished paintings in public just in time for exhibition openings. Those who did see him paint in his studio said he worked quickly, often working on several canvases at the same time.
An exhibition featuring some of these unfinished paintings was held in 1966 at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. This led to a fresh wave of interest in Turner’s work. Though Turner himself would not have regarded these paintings as ready to show in a public exhibition, it is fitting that some of his favourite compositions have gone on to become some of his most influential works. While they may appear ‘abstract’, they are rooted in subjects that held meaning for Turner.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Norham Castle, Sunrise c.1845
Norham sits on the river Tweed in Northumberland, on the English side of the border with Scotland. Turner first saw Norham castle in 1797, during his first tour of northern Britain. He returned to the ruins in 1801 and 1831, creating work after each visit. Turner made this unfinished canvas late in his career. He uses colour to express the blazing light that merges the building and the landscape. It is one of a group of paintings Turner based on compositions from his ‘Liber Studiorum’ (‘Book of Studies’) (1807–19). This was Turner’s set of 70 engravings he had made from his watercolour compositions.
Gallery label, July 2020
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artworks in Experiments on Canvas
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sunrise, a Castle on a Bay: ‘Solitude’ c.1840–5
This is a reworking in oil paint of a watercolour Turner first created for his ‘Liber Studiorum’ (‘Book of Studies’) (1807-19) set of engravings. In this set, he classified his landscapes into six types: Architectural, Historical, Mountainous, Marine, Pastoral and E.P. This work is marked ‘E.P’. E.P. meant Elevated or Epic Pastoral. Pastoral art showed an idealised view of the countryside. Turner’s E.P. celebrated the pastoral art of French painter Claude Lorrain (c.1604/5–82), who depicted the landscapes around Rome. Turner based the original watercolour on Lorrain’s Landscape with Psyche outside the Palace of Cupid (in the National Gallery).
Gallery label, July 2020
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artworks in Experiments on Canvas
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sunrise with Sea Monsters c.1845
Although this unfinished painting has come to be known as Sunrise with Sea Monsters, the obscure pink shape at the lower centre of the canvas probably depicts fish; indeed a red and white float and part of a net can be seen nearby.
Commentators have related the picture to Turner’s whaling scenes, and other paintings with fish in the foreground from the 1840s. But the subject of fishing was of interest to Turner throughout his career, as were remarkable sunsets and sunrises such as the dawn depicted here.
Gallery label, February 2010
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artworks in Experiments on Canvas
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sunrise, with a Boat between Headlands c.1840–5
Displayed here are two paintings: an unfinished landscape, thought to depict either Lake Lucerne from Brunnen or a stretch of the river Rhine; and a finished subject from Dido and Aeneas.
John Burnet described the unfinished works that Turner brought to the Royal Academy on Varnishing Days as ‘divided into large masses of blue, where the water or sky was to come, [with] other portions laid out in broad orange yellow, falling into delicate brown where the trees and landscapes were to be placed’ (1852). Turner would then add further representational details and local colour to complete the picture.
Gallery label, February 2010
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artworks in Experiments on Canvas
Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Arrival of Louis-Philippe at the Royal Clarence Yard, Gosport, 8 October 1844 c.1844–5
These two unfinished oil paintings make much of the eager crowds witnessing the king’s arrival. The uncompromising style Turner was using in the mid-1840s usually baffled his critics. Even if he had completed these paintings, their depiction of the occasion would almost certainly have been ridiculed in the press.
Gallery label, November 2022
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artworks in Experiments on Canvas
Joseph Mallord William Turner, A River Seen from a Hill c.1840–5
This is an unfinished work in the square format used by Turner in the 1840s, usually for exhibited pairs of paintings. The subject, a river landscape with a bridge, might be an Italian scene, but this remains unclear. The use of areas of pale, contrasting colour to denote the features of the landscape is somewhat reminiscent of the unfinished colour studies Turner made in watercolour, known as ‘colour beginnings’.
Gallery label, February 2016
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artworks in Experiments on Canvas
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Seascape with Distant Coast c.1840
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artworks in Experiments on Canvas
Mark Rothko, Untitled c.1950–2
In his mature work, Rothko abandoned specific reference to nature in order to paint images with universal associations. By the late 1940s he had developed a style in which hazy, luminous rectangles float within a vertical format. Rothko wrote that the great artistic achievements of the past were pictures of the human figure alone in a moment of utter immobility. He sought to create his own version of this solitary meditative experience, scaling his pictures so that the viewer is enveloped in their subtly shifting, atmospheric surface.
Gallery label, July 2012
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artworks in Experiments on Canvas
Art in this room