Turner self portrait

Turner and the Masters in the Tate Museum in London will present a selection of magnificent paintings by JMW Turner (1775-1851) alongside related works by the old masters and contemporaries he hoped to imitate, rival and surpass. Bringing together around one hundred works of supreme historical significance from collections around the world this will be the first exhibition to look at Turner’s work in the company of the greatest painters in the preceding history of western art. It will reveal his debts and rivalries in exciting, even unpredictable, ways, and explore his reputation as one of the greatest painters of landscape in the European tradition.
The exhibition will pair Turner’s works with major paintings by his predecessors, many brought together for the first time, including works by Canaletto, Claude, Cuyp, Poussin, Rembrandt, Rubens, Ruisdael, and van de Velde. There will also be pairings with paintings by Turner’s most important contemporaries such as Constable and Bonington. It will show how Turner’s responses to other artists were both acts of homage and a sophisticated form of art criticism, designed to demonstrate his understanding of great art and his ability to equal and even outshine the most celebrated exponents of the landscape tradition.

The exhibition will include comparisons such as Rembrandt’s Landscape with the Rest on the flight into Egypt 1647 (National Gallery of Ireland) displayed with Turner’s Moonlight, a study at Millbank Exh. 1797 (Tate); Rubens’s Landscape by Moonlight 1635-1640 (Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery) shown with Turner’s Forest of Bere 1809 (Tate); Claude’s Moses saved from the Waters (Prado, Madrid) with Turner’s Crossing the Brook exh.1815 (Tate) Ruisdael’s A Rough Sea at a Jetty 1650s (Kimbell Art Museum) alongside Turner’s Port Ruysdael exh.1827 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven); and Poussin’s, Landscape with a Roman Road (Dulwich Picture Gallery) paired with Turner’s Chateaux de St Michael, Bonneville, Savoy, exh. 1803 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven).

Joseph Mallord William Turner is regarded as being among the greatest artists in history, whose work was prolific and varied including drawings, prints, watercolours and oils. Born in London, Turner was the son of a barber of humble means. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1789 at the age of 14 before becoming a member of the RA in 1802 and Professor of Perspective in 1807.

A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition, published by Tate Publishing. The exhibition will tour to Le Grand Palais, Paris, from 22 February to 23 May 2010, and to the Museo del Prado, Madrid, from 22 June to 19 September 2010.

Turner and the Masters – Tate Britain, Linbury Galleries, 23 September 2009 – 31 January 2010, Admission £12.50 (£10.50 concessions), Open every day 10.00-17.50, and until 22.00 on the first Friday of the month, For information www.tate.org.uk or call 020 7887 8888

Seattle and Tacoma are in good company. The top 3 of artistic ‘big cities’ is formed by New York, Chicago and Washington DC, Seattle following the sixth place. Tacoma is on a well deserved 17th place in the list of mid cities’ and towns so as Colorado Springs, Kansas City and Honolulu behind.
For more information see www.experiencewa.com and www.americanstyle.com