Turner: The Late Seascapes

About this book

The English romantic painter J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) is renowned for his sublime and dramatic landscapes and seascapes. The sea held a particular fascination for the artist exemplified not only by the subject matter of many of his paintings but also by his own collection of ship models and personal experiences as an amateur sailor. This handsome book - written by Turner expert James Hamilton and published in conjunction with a traveling exhibition organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and Manchester City Galleries - focuses primarily on the artists spectacular seascapes dating from the 1840s the last decade of his illustrious career. Turner: The Late Seascapes provides new and provocative insights into these powerful works relating them to the artists interest in poetry and drama as well as his curiousity about science optics and photography. Turners extensive travels - which clearly fed his imagination and inspired his choice of subject matter - are explored in depth as is the relationship between Turners paintings and seventeenth-century Dutch precedents. Hamilton also examines the important role of the pendant in Turners late art arguing that his paired works have intentional associative narrative stylistic and chromatic meanings. In addition the author traces the evolution of Turners famous Whaling series offering a new source for it and examines Turners captain Elisha Morgan and the English photographer John Mayall both of which have been previously overlooked in the literature on the artist. Including more than 90 examples of Turners dramatic and lively marine pictures - 70 of which are reproduced in full color - this elegant book sheds fascinating new light on one of the worlds most beloved artists.