The J.M.W. Turner: Paintings Set Free exhibition at the De Young Museum in San Francisco,“is the first major survey of Turner’s achievements during the late years of his life”. The show includes paintings and watercolors from 1835, when the artist turned 60, through 1850, the last year that he exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.
A few highlights from the show include the fabulous painting “Snow Storm”, which was exhibited on dark charcoal walls and drew an audible exclamation of enthusiasm from SL. The power of the circular brush strokes and Turner’s ability to integrate color makes for an expression that draws the viewer into almost a vortex of strength. This reminded us of a similar Turner painting from 1840 that we saw exhibited at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, entitled “Rockets and Blue Lights (Close at Hand) to Warn Steamboats of Shoal Water”.
And the other painting that was memorable was one Turner had painted after a mariner death of a friend, ” Peace – Burial at Sea”, in which Turner depicted the breaking apart of a sailing vessel with black sails. His critics cried fowl as no sailing ship has black sails, to which Turner replied that he only wished he had blacker paint to express his loss of a dear friend.
JMW Turner, Snow Storm, 1842. Oil on Canvas
Image Courtesy of J.M.W. Turner – Painting Set Free by Davud Blayney Brown, Amy Concannon, and Sam Smiles, 2014.
JMW Turner, Rockets and Blue Lights (Close at Hand) to Warn Steamboats of Shallow Water, 1840, Oil on Canvas
Image Courtesy of J.M.W. Turner – Painting Set Free by Davud Blayney Brown, Amy Concannon, and Sam Smiles, 2014
JMW Turner, Peace – Burial at Sea, 1842, Oil on Canvas
Image Courtesy of J.M.W. Turner – Painting Set Free by Davud Blayney Brown, Amy Concannon, and Sam Smiles, 2014
