Sunday 7 June 2009

Let's skive with Turner

JMW Turner, The Val d'Aosta, 1840s
Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

... and so we did. Just as well, seeing that tomorrow would have been too late (and not a day for skiving anyway... facilitating PhD students on how to become effective).

So: there was at points nothing to see and yet the paintings were so full of everything. Talking about Turner... hm, dunno... while happy to take Twombly apart (well, a bit), Turner is something different altogether.

So, while I'm getting over introductory shyness and am sussing out some of the obvious and less obvious links why this has been a phantastic day out in Edinburgh, here's some of my favourites.

JMW Turner, Landscape with River and distant Mountains, c1845
Oil on Canvas, Walker Art Gallery, National Museum, Liverpool

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was hard to choose favourites, but one standout for me was that large early watercolour of a mountain pass. From a short distance, it looked completely abstract. It could have been hung in any direction and worked as a painting. Right there, even at that early stage in his life, you could see the germ for his later work in abstracting the landscape.

Cate again