"TURNER: THE GREAT WATERCOLOURS"
2000-12-02 until 2001-02-11
Royal Academy of the Arts
London, , UK

To mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Britain's greatest painter, the Royal Academy will be holding a major commemorative exhibition of the watercolours of J.M.W. Turner, RA. This will provide an unparalleled survey of the artist's finished watercolours, many of which rival his oils in their breadth of scale, depth of tone, richness of colour and wealth of detail.

Turner: The Great Watercolours includes some 100 works and concentrates on watercolours created for the public arena, in the form of exhibitions, commissions from patrons, and works to be translated into engravings. The exhibition will demonstrate Turner's unique achievement in exploring the scope and potential of watercolour and presents an outstanding opportunity to see works that are not normally on public display, with over 40 works on loan from private collections.

The watercolours will range from an early detailed view of the Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth - the first work he ever exhibited at the Royal Academy - to the Swiss scenes he produced at the end of his life. Included in the exhibition will be the many remarkable views of ruins, church buildings and country houses that established the artist's reputation among patrons in the 1790s. The rich and meticulously crafted watercolours created as models for engravings during the 1810s and '20s will demonstrate Turner's ability to capture the character of British and continental scenery. Included will be the watercolours created for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales series, which are generally considered to be the finest views of the British landscape ever made. The exhibition will culminate with a group of Swiss watercolours from the 1840s, in which Turner captured the beauty, luminosity and breathtaking spaces of the Alps.

Throughout his career, J.M.W. Turner, RA (1775 - 1851) maintained a close relationship with the Royal Academy, and devoted a huge amount of time and energy to the institution. A student at the RA Schools, he regularly exhibited his watercolours from 1790 onwards and oil paintings from 1796. When he was elected a Royal Academician in 1802, at the age of only 26, he was the youngest artist ever to have been awarded that distinction. He was appointed Professor of Perspective in 1807, a post he held for 30 years.

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