J.M.W. Turner

Widely regarded as one of the greatest figures in the history of art, J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) had a profound influence on the development of Impressionism.

What is less known is that his influence spread far beyond Europe, and provided a foundational model for American artists challenged with tackling the vast panoramas of the New World.

J.M.W. Turner, accompanying the largest exhibition of his work ever presented in the US, shows how Turner’s revolutionary depictions of light, color and atmospherics in the landscape—combined with his understanding of the sublime in nature—made him among the most acclaimed and keenly studied European artists in the New World. Landscape painting was seen as the art form most closely allied to the identity of the newly independent nation, and Turner’s majestic works served as a model for a new generation of American painters.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE:

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, October 1, 2007–January 6, 2008
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, February 10, 2008–May 18, 2008
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, January 23, 2008–September 21, 2008

Ian Warrell is one of the world’s leading authorities on Turner. He is a Tate curator and the author of Turner in Venice.

Franklin Kelly of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, is the author of Frederic Edwin Church and Winslow Homer.