Turner and his Critics

Joseph Mallord William Turner, War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet  exhibited 1842

This painting reflects Turner’s lifelong engagement with topical subjects and his use of different shaped canvases. In December 1840 a grand state funeral was held for French military commander and political leader Napoleon I. Turner, however, imagines him alone and powerless in exile on the island of St. Helena. He is guarded by a British soldier. Despite its patriotic theme, the critics attacked this painting. ‘Truly ludicrous’, wrote one, complaining that the reflection of Napoleon’s boots in the water suggested he was standing on ‘two long black stilts’. Turner paired this work with Peace.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Undine Giving the Ring to Massaniello, Fisherman of Naples  exhibited 1846

Turner added this painting’s deep blue sky to outdo a painting by his friend David Roberts at the 1846 Royal Academy exhibition. The critics called it ‘slap-dash’, claiming that it was something only the ‘ultra-Turnerites’ could like.

‘Massaniello’ refers to Tommaso Aniello, leader of a fisherman’s revolt in 17th-century Naples. People across Europe were also calling for reform when this work was painted. However, Turner’s direct inspiration may have been London performances of an opera and a ballet that told the revolutionary fisherman’s story. In the ballet, the sea spirit Undine entices Aniello into the sea.

Gallery label, August 2024

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Palestrina - Composition  1828, exhibited 1830

Turner showed this painting in Rome, London and Edinburgh. Critics were divided. ‘Glorious’ but ‘artificial’ wrote London’s critics. Despite its ‘glare and glitter’, an Edinburgh critic said that when viewed from a distance it was ‘genius’, and appeared to be painted with a brush ‘dipped in a sunbeam’. Turner painted this impression of a city once celebrated for its beauty for his friend and patron, Lord Egremont. He envisaged it as a pair to a work Egremont owned by 17thcentury artist, Claude Lorrain. However, Egremont didn’t acquire it and years later Turner sold it for a high price, 1000 guineas, to whaling magnate Elhanan Bicknell.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, View of Orvieto, Painted in Rome  1828, reworked 1830

In October 1828 Turner arrived in Rome, Italy, for a three-month stay. He had passed through Orvieto, to the north of Rome, on his way. According to a letter he wrote to sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey, he had completed this painting within a month of arriving to stop the ‘gabbling’ of studio visitors who complained he had no paintings to show them. It was first shown at the exhibition Turner held in his lodgings in Rome, and then exhibited in London two years later. One critic said its ‘gaudiness’ was the only reason people stopped to look at it.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vision of Medea  1828

To ready this work for exhibition in Rome, Turner painted a length of rope yellow and nailed it around the edge as a makeshift frame. The painting’s subject is from Greek mythology. Rejected by Jason, leader of the Argonauts, Medea’s pain led her to kill the children she shared with him. Ingredients for the spell she is casting, including a snake and poisonous herbs, feature at lower left. Difficult to make out the detail, it was ridiculed. One reviewer said it may as well have been hung upside down. Another called it a ‘an agony of ochre’.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Queen Mab’s Cave  exhibited 1846

Turner exhibited this work at the British Institution, an exhibition venue run by art collectors. One reviewer called it ‘a daylight dream... of gorgeous, bright, and positive colour, not painted but apparently flung upon the canvas’. To artist and critic John Ruskin, this was a ‘strange example of the way in which the greatest men may at times lose themselves.’ The character of Queen Mab appeared in William Shakespeare’s plays. Driving her chariot over sleeping people, she uncovers secret hopes in dreams. Turner references A Midsummer Night’s Dream here, but he may have also read Queen Mab by Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, A Country Blacksmith Disputing upon the Price of Iron, and the Price Charged to the Butcher for Shoeing his Poney  exhibited 1807

At the 1807 Royal Academy exhibition this painting hung next to one by celebrated newcomer, David Wilkie. Turner wanted to prove he could paint scenes of everyday life just as brilliantly as Wilkie. Opinion was divided, but one observer said Wilkie’s painting was ‘flung into eclipse’ by Turner’s and that Turner’s work ‘killed’ others nearby. Its subject, an argument over a blacksmith’s prices, reflects the Napoleonic Wars’ impact on life in Britain. Such trades had to increase prices after 1806, when the government introduced a pig iron tax to pay war debts.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Harvest Dinner, Kingston Bank  exhibited 1809

The ‘dinner’ here is no feast. Five adults, one of whom cradles a baby, share one small basket of food on a hot late summer day. Turner had sketched these people at Kingston-upon-Thames in 1805, possibly from a boat on the river. Like in other paintings he made, Turner draws attention to the hardship faced by labourers. He may have intended its title to be ironic – for harvest is a time of plenty for all except those whose labour is exploited for profit. When this painting was first exhibited in Turner’s own London gallery it was admired by younger artists John Sell Cotman and David Cox, who made pencil drawings of it.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Frosty Morning  exhibited 1813

Painted with ‘open eyes’ is how French Impressionist Claude Monet described this painting when he saw it years after Turner’s death. It impressed viewers in Turner’s lifetime, too. Critics said it imitated the feeling of a cold wintry morning ‘to perfection’. Turner witnessed this scene of a ditch being cleared when travelling through Yorkshire in the north of England. We think that the girl, who has a hare draped over her shoulders to keep warm, is modelled on Turner’s eldest daughter, Evelina. She and her sister, Georgiana, were born to Sarah Danby, who never lived with Turner.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage - Italy  exhibited 1832

This painting was so popular that visitors to the Royal Academy were advised to arrive at opening time to avoid the crowds. Art critics, however, slated Turner’s colouring. Its ‘red glow’, said one, was ‘fatiguing to the eye’. Another reminded Turner that his hero, 17th-century landscape master Claude, painted Italy in hues subtler than the ‘colours of the rainbow.’ Its title refers to a poem by the most gossiped-about poet of the day, Lord Byron. Turner showed his painting with lines from Byron’s poem: ‘...and now, fair Italy! / Thou are the garden of the world...’.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Mercury Sent to Admonish Aeneas  exhibited 1850

In 1850 Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy for the final time. Revisiting a subject that had inspired him as a young artist, these last exhibits told the story of Trojan hero Aeneas, by Roman poet Virgil. Wearing a helmet and cloak, Aeneas stands on the left with Cupid, the Roman god of love. The winged messenger, Mercury, may have already flown away. Virgil describes him melting into the air. Turner paints a veil of mist glittering in the rising sun. Critics were both impressed and puzzled. One declared that Turner had swapped the ‘dignity’ of old age for the ‘effervescence of youth’.

Gallery label, October 2023