Turner Continental
TURNER: Cologne: The Arrival of a Packet Boat: Evening 1826 © The Frick Collection New York. Photo Michael Bodycomb
In a prodigious and artistically ground-breaking life, Joseph Mallord William Turner (born 1775, died 1851) completed tens of thousands of sketches. These were mainly done very fast in pencil in sketch-books but also on loose leaves and at least once into a travel book he had rebound with interspersed blank pages for drawing. He then used them as source material in his studio, furnishing his deep affinity with Europe, explored in the London National Gallery’s new two-painting show, Turner on Tour. Turner travelled abroad for the first time in 1802, visiting France and Switzerland, seeding a love of travel that never left him. But from 1803-1815 his energy and constant interest in things and his desire to also work on the continent were thwarted by that most cursed of all irritants: war. How familiar that blight is once again, running contrary to judgement and reason. Today we understand afresh the frustrations of those not involved In combat whose lives are adversely affected by it. So it was that Turner, who travelled to gain new ideas for paintings, was unable to visit the continent for 12 years because of the Napoleonic wars. Imagine his joy when conflict ended. He began taking well-prepared working trips abroad, with scrupulous itineraries and detailed lists of clothing, delighting in and recording fresh horizons, scenes — and light.
Competitive, keenly observant and ambitious, Turner was always keen to develop and if possible surpass the techniques and achievements of the great continental painters he most admired, both Dutch and French. His love of coastal scenes began early (and what better place than Britain’s endless shoreline to develop it). But it was in the romance and romantically enhanced light of foreign sea and river ports that he consolidated a pictorial form of majestic serenity, including Dieppe, and Cologne on the Rhine, and finally, Venice. Paintings that combine observation and record with imagination and invention, reconstruction, story-telling and romance. Like Shakespeare, or Canaletto, or those who came later such as William Frith, Turner never let absolute truth get in the way of a good story. He adapted views (whether of Dieppe or Cologne) to suit his purpose, painting poetic, sharply lemon-infused light on water to conjure atmosphere, regardless of critics who found it too sublime for the places in question, then added lively interest with brilliantly observed small figures in the clothing of the day, bustling about whatever theatrical business he assigned to them. Just as with Frith’s later The Derby Day, these are paintings to get lost in.
The two huge paintings on show in the National Gallery’s latest in-focus exhibition come from the Frick Collection in New York. Harbour of Dieppe, Changement de Domicile, 1825-6 and Cologne, The Arrival of a Packet Boat, Evening, 1826, were bought by multimillionaire Henry Clay Frick for his then new house when still being constructed at the start of the First World War (he first bought one, then the other). They’ve stayed there ever since. So this is a rare opportunity to spend time in a well-lit room with a well-placed bench, looking at just two paintings in detail that first showed together at the Royal Academy in 1825.
TURNER: Harbour of Dieppe, Changement de Domicile, 1825-1826 © The Frick Collection New York Photo Michael Bodycomb
In each, as you walk into the room, the effect is one of spellbinding whitish yellow light, and dazzling reflection off the water, plus the pale but luminous, semi-classicised ports curved around the again pale, tawny, sail-rigged boats. The amount of lead white and lemony chrome-yellow used is almost overwhelming and casts a sort of luminous mist that’s hugely distinctive but not unpleasing, focused in each case on a central zone where sky meets and is reflected in a sea with almost incandescent light. Turner’s use of oil paint even at this scale is remarkably like his use of watercolour. He applied the paint thinned, in a sketching fashion, building layer upon layer so that the semi or fully translucent veils shimmer, one on the other, refracting to create an illusion of aqueous or airy depth. The effect works particularly well with water, especially ruffling water. The ships, rigging and sails are also to a degree drawn as well as painted, here and there with some additional outlining or lining to emphasis the planking, the flapping canvas, the form, with pointed or even rigger brushes.
Having set the scene in each case of a boat in harbour (in the case of Dieppe, quantities of boats in harbour), Turner then adds the business of people, of extras, one might say, which is very distinctive in each case.
Detail of TURNER: Harbour of Dieppe, Changement de Domicile, 1825-1826 © The Frick Collection New York
In Harbour of Dieppe, the titular ‘story’ of moving house is told by the two servant women (detail above), their hair tied in vaguely classical-looking headscarves, who unload the household’s goods on the side of the quay next to a dubiously stable pontoon of massive, rough-hewn timbers tied together. Below the women and still to come up is a bewildering array of heaped household paraphernalia joyfully sketched in by the artist, including loaded baskets, carpets, and framed paintings including a gilded portrait perched ready to rescue. On the quayside itself, echoing a finely rendered fishing net set to dry is a forlorn bird cage with no bird. But there are other characters nearby, including a pretty young woman idly splashing her feet in the water. Who and where are the people who have moved? We have no idea, they’ve either gone ahead or were on a different vessel. But the painting conveys the tumult and also thrill of moving and the heave-ho of a very busy port.
Does it look like Dieppe? Critics didn’t feel so; yet Turner had definitely been there. Oddly the most Francophile touch is the way the younger servant’s vibrant brocaded scarf resembles in shape, at least the Frigian cap of the Revolutionaries.
My favourite of the two paintings is Cologne. The rather fat packet boat (in this case a boat that plied to and fro between Cologne and Dusseldorf like a ferry; the term means boats that carried the mail, so were fast and frequent: they also ran from Calais to Dover, for example), is so beautifully drawn (below). It’s regarding this boat that the comparison with later painter Frith is most relevant. The boat is stuffed with middle class or lower-middle class travellers, all women apart from one capped sailor glimpsed from the rear chatting one up. Who are they? Perhaps sailor’s wives just arrived en-masse for the weekend or on some sort of jaunt or jolly? Some have children; their ages vary. Near the front, what looks like the servant of an older woman sitting further back absent-mindedly dangles what might be a cat in a netted bag over the side, though it’s hard to be sure.
Detail of TURNER: Cologne: The Arrival of a Packet Boat: Evening 1826. Photo © Stockley
In the shallows lurches some extraordinary multiple-lobster pot contraption that Turner must have been fascinated by and drawn (above). This device [in both senses] lets us know how shallow the boat’s draft is but also draws our eyes onshore, to the rangy dog with its tongue out, busy lapping river water. The water itself is done in nearly pure white lead, drawing the eye to the darkness of the dog, moving us around the canvas.
Detail of TURNER: Cologne: The Arrival of a Packet Boat: Evening 1826 © Stockley
Perhaps most fascinating are the women labourers on the quayside nearby (below). Two in the forefront are running a timber yard, the older one in a severe black widow’s cap — it may well be her dead husband’s business. Nearby a barked trunk is in the process of being split into planks, an evil looking saw doubling as driving wedge, though perhaps the men who would most likely do this energetic work have gone off for the evening. But the two women are still hard at work stacking cut planks, It’s dangerous, heavy work. Beyond them, two other women on their knees appear to be bundling or storing hay or straw. Elsewhere, pedestrians flow along a lengthy foot bridge in the distance.
Detail of TURNER: Cologne: The Arrival of a Packet Boat: Evening 1826 © Stockley
While it would be trite to say that all humanity is here, what is so vivid is that among all this classical, poetic serenity, working people are certainly all around and hard at it, and Turner’s focus on working women and travelling women is most interesting.
Detail of TURNER: Cologne: The Arrival of a Packet Boat: Evening 1826 © Stockley
For students of clothing or social history there’s a huge amount of interest; for boat lovers, ditto. This show proves yet again what a magnificent force for good the National Gallery is. One can enjoy this exhibition in room 46 for nothing, which, given what’s going on elsewhere in the world, and at home, is an absolute joy.
TURNER on TOUR
3 November-19 February 2023
The National Gallery, London
All images are under strict copyright. No images may be taken from this website and/or used in any way without prior written consent from the copyright holder.