Joseph Mallord William Turner - Caligua’s Palace and Bridge [c.1831]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Caligua’s Palace and Bridge [c.1831], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The subject of this painting is an episode from Suetonius’s Life of the Emperor Caligula. Confounding a prediction that he would no more become emperor than ride across the Gulf of Baiae with horses, Caligula constructed an artificial floating bridge of boats which he then crossed with a chariot. Following popular accounts, Turner has depicted the bridge as a solid construction. It has, however, like the adjacent palace, fallen into ruin and decay. 

The picture was widely admired in 1831. The Times described it as ‘one of the most beautiful and magnificent landscapes that ever mind conceived or pencil drew’.

[Tate Gallery, London - Oil on canvas, 1372 x 2463 mm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Van Tromp, Going About to Please His Masters [1844]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Van Tromp, Going About to Please His Masters [1844], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In this narrative history painting, Joseph Mallord William Turner expressed the power of nature and the heroism of man through the eyes of a Romantic painter. Turner used quick, slanting brushstrokes to describe the stormy sky. The application of scumbled white paint suggests churning, turbulent seas and the heavy spray of waves hitting the ship's bow. Tones of brown paint near the bottom of the canvas give a sense of the sea's violent power. 

On the foredeck of a ship that strains against the waves, a man stands in a white uniform and waves with confidence. While scholars are uncertain of the exact historical event Turner described, one probable interpretation is that the man depicted here is Dutch naval officer Cornelis Van Tromp, who was dismissed from naval service in 1666 after failing to follow orders. Van Tromp was reinstated in service and reconciled with his navy superiors in 1673. In perhaps a symbolic overture signaling his submission to authority, Tromp is shown, in Turner's words, "going about to please his Masters."

[Tate Gallery, London - Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Venice, the Bridge of Sighs [exhibited1840]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Venice, the Bridge of Sighs [exhibited 1840], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

One of the most famous landmarks in Venice, the Bridge of Sighs connects the Doge’s Palace on the left with the prisons of the Palazzo dei Prigioni to the right. When Turner exhibited the painting in 1840, he accompanied it with lines based on Byron’s poem, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:

I stood upon a bridge, a palace and

A prison on each hand.

Indeed it was Byron who allegedly coined the name of the bridge, deriving its title from the mournful image of convicts taking their last glimpse of the city before being led down to the darkness of the cells.

[Tate Gallery, London - Oil on canvas, 686 x 914 mm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Sun Rising Through Vapour [before1807]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Sun Rising Through Vapour [before 1807], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This work was probably influenced by earlier Dutch painting. No particular locality seems intended. Almost certainly the picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1807 with the title as given here. 

Turner was born near Covent Garden in London and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1789. His earliest works form part of the 18th-century topographical tradition. He was soon inspired by 17th-century Dutch artists such as Willem van der Velde, and by the Italianate landscapes of Claude and Richard Wilson.

[National Gallery, London - Oil on canvas, 134 x 179.5 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Approach to Venice [1844]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Approach to Venice [1844], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

As barges and gondolas slowly cross the Venetian lagoon, the misty city vanishes in the twilight. John Ruskin, the major art critic who was one of Turner’s few champions later in his career, hailed the canvas as “the most perfectly beautiful piece of colour of all that I have seen produced by human hands.” In the Royal Academy catalogue for 1844, this entry was accompanied by a quotation that Turner himself rewrote from Lord Byron’s poem Childe Harold:

“The moon is up, and yet it is not night,

The sun as yet disputes the day with her.”

[Oil on canvas, 62 x 94 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Venice, The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore [1834]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Venice, The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore [1834], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

At the “especial suggestion” of a British textile manufacturer, Turner devised this Venetian cityscape as a symbolic salute to commerce. Gondolas carry cargoes of fine fabrics and exotic spices. On the right is the Dogana, or Customs House, topped by a statue of Fortune, which Turner greatly enlarged in size. Moreover, the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore has been pushed very far back in space, making the Grand Canal seem much wider than it really is.

These theatrical exaggerations and the precise, linear drafting of the architecture owe much to Canaletto, an eighteenth-century Venetian painter whose art glorified his city. At the 1834 Royal Academy show, critics gave enraptured praise to the scene’s radiant, sparkling waters. The next year, another commission from the same patron resulted in its moonlit companion piece, Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight.

[Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 122 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight [1835]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight [1835], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

On England’s River Tyne, near the mining city of Newcastle, stevedores called keelmen transfer coal from barges, or keels, to oceangoing vessels. The harsh glare of the workmen’s torches contrasts with the funnel of creamy light emanating from the moon. Critical opinion about Turner’s unusual nocturne was divided. One reviewer observed: “It represents neither night nor day, and yet the general effect is very agreeable and surprising.”

Commissioned as a pendant to Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore and shown at the Royal Academy in 1835, this canvas creates a total counterpoint in mood and meaning. The Venetian scene is far away in the Mediterranean Sea, concerns luxury goods, and glows with warm daylight. This North Sea view, a familiar sight to the British public, reveals sooty, modern industry chilled by the colours of a winter’s night.

[Oil on canvas, 92.3 x 122.8 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Parting of Hero and Leander [1837]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Parting of Hero and Leander [1837], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837. The ancient Greek grammarian and poet Musaeus is most famous for his poem on the lovers Hero and Leander. Leander swam the Hellespont to join Hero. When he drowned, she flung herself into the sea.

[Oil on canvas, 146 x 236 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway [1844]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway [1844], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The scene is fairly certainly identifiable as Maidenhead railway bridge, across the Thames between Taplow and Maidenhead. The bridge, which was begun on Brunel's design in 1837 and finished in 1839, has two main arches of brick, very wide and flat. The view is to the east, towards London. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844.

Turner is perhaps the best-loved English Romantic artist. He became known as 'the painter of light', because of his increasing interest in brilliant colours as the main constituent in his landscapes and seascapes. His works include water colours, oils and engravings.

[Oil on canvas, 91 x 121.8 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Evening Star [c.1830]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Evening Star [c.1830], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The title is not Turner's own, but is taken from some lines of Turner's verse scribbled in a sketchbook used in 1829-30. Turner was deeply interested in such transitional moments in nature: the evening star first appears in daylight and is soon supplanted by the stronger light of the moon. Here the pale point of the star is barely discernible in the sky, but is reflected clearly in the sea; in both places the star consists of thickly applied white paint. In the foreground is a boy with a shrimping net and a small leaping dog. The painting is generally regarded as a study of the effects of light and atmosphere, rather than a finished work.

[Oil on canvas, 91.1 x 122.6 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute [c.1835]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute [c.1835], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This painting, which is based in part on a sketch executed in August 1819 during Turner's first trip to Venice, combines two viewpoints along the Grand Canal. The buildings on the left are seen from the corner of the church of Santa Maria della Salute. Those on the right are seen from a vague position across the canal, approximately one hundred yards farther back, near the Campo del Traghetto of Santa Maria del Giglio. Turner also extended the height of the Campanile (the tower in the background at left) and added a building in the background at the right.

[Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 122.2 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus, Homer's Odyssey [1829]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus, Homer's Odyssey [1829], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Ulysses is standing aloft on his ship deriding the Cyclops, whom he and his companions have just left blinded, and invoking the vengeance of Neptune. One of the flags is painted with the scene of the Trojan Horse. The horses of the Sun are rising above the horizon. Apparently the idea was in Turner's mind as early as about 1807, if this is the correct date of a sketchbook which contains a rough drawing of the subject. The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1829.

[Oil on canvas, 132.5 x 203 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Thames Above Waterloo Bridge c.1830-35]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Thames Above Waterloo Bridge c.1830-35], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This unfinished painting takes us to the heart of the smoky commercial capital which, though a Londoner by birth and resident for most of his life, Turner usually preferred to depict from a distance. Here he looks along the Thames towards Waterloo Bridge, designed by John Rennie and opened in 1817, two years after the Battle of Waterloo. 

Turner’s view dates from the 1830s and he was perhaps planning a response in kind to John Constable’s Opening of Waterloo Bridge (Tate), which appeared at the Royal Academy in 1832.

[Oil on canvas, 905 x 1210 mm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Thames Near Walton Bridges [1805]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Thames Near Walton Bridges [1805], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

While living for part of the time at Isleworth, Turner made many excursions along the river, drawing, painting and fishing – his favourite hobby. He kept a boat, and often stopped overnight at various landing-places. He also painted on board, as here on small wood panels and sometimes, more ambitiously, on canvas. 

Painting in oils in the open air, direct from the subject, was becoming popular in the early nineteenth century, in response to a growing feeling for naturalism. Turner’s oil sketches of the Thames painted around 1805 show him at the forefront of the trend.

[Oil on mahogany, 371 x 737 mm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Calais Pier [1803]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Calais Pier [1803], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The packet boat is arriving at Calais, full of passengers. The heavy swell and storm clouds dominate the scene. The sun breaks through to touch the sail. The shaft of light from the sun down to the sea forms the centre of the composition. Turner's picture is based on a real-life event. In 1802 he took his first trip abroad via Calais. On a sketch for this picture he noted that the seas had been so rough he was 'nearly swampt'. The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1803. Like a number of Turner's pictures it was not well received, and was thought unfinished in the foreground.

[Oil on canvas, 172 x 240 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Fighting Temeraire [1839]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Fighting Temeraire [1839], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

The 98-gun ship Temeraire played a distinguished role in Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, after which she was known as the Fighting Temeraire. The ship remained in service until 1838 when she was decommissioned and towed from Sheerness to Rotherhithe to be broken up. The painting was thought to represent the decline of Britain's naval power. The Temeraire is shown travelling east, away from the sunset, even though Rotherhithe is west of Sheerness, but Turner's main concern was to evoke a sense of loss, rather than to give an exact recording of the event. The spectacularly colourful setting of the sun draws a parallel with the passing of the old warship. By contrast the new steam-powered tug is smaller and more prosaic.

Turner was in his sixties when he painted The Fighting Temeraire. It shows his mastery of painting techniques to suggest sea and sky. Paint laid on thickly is used to render the sun's rays striking the clouds. By contrast, the ship's rigging is meticulously painted.

[Oil on canvas, 90.7 x 121.6 cm]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Dinner in a Great Room with Figures in Costume [c.1830-35]

The influence of Rembrandt's dramatic effects of chiaroscuro on Turner (1775 – 1851) can be readily appreciated in this unfinished painting. Turner had been impressed by Rembrandt's art since he had been a student, but many of the paintings he produced during the last years of the 1820s, and on into the 1830s, demonstrate his revived respect for the Dutch old master. The left hand side of this work seems to be indebted to a painting formerly thought to be by Rembrandt, which passed through the London art market in 1821; the small interior scene is now in the National Gallery. The costumes worn by the figures suggest that Turner may have intended to complete a historical subject.

[Oil on canvas, 908 x 121.9 mm]