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Turner

By Eric Shanes

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Length2h 18m

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At fifteen, Turner was already exhibiting View of Lambeth. He soon acquired the reputation of an immensely clever watercolourist. A disciple of Girtin and Cozens, he showed in his choice and presentation of theme a picturesque imagination which seemed to mark him out for a brilliant career as an illustrator. He travelled, first in his native land and then on several occasions in France, the Rhine Valley, Switzerland and Italy. He soon began to look beyond illustration. However, even in works in which we are tempted to see only picturesque imagination, there appears his dominant and guiding ideal of lyric landscape. His choice of a single master from the past is an eloquent witness for he studied profoundly such canvases of Claude as he could find in England, copying and imitating them with a marvellous degree of perfection. His cult for the great painter never failed. He desired his Sun Rising through Vapour and Dido Building Carthage to be placed in the National Gallery side by side with two of Claude’s masterpieces. And, there, we may still see them and judge how legitimate was this proud and splendid homage. It was only in 1819 that Turner went to Italy, to go again in 1829 and 1840. Certainly Turner experienced emotions and found subjects for reverie which he later translated in terms of his own genius into symphonies of light and colour. Ardour is tempered with melancholy, as shadow strives with light. Melancholy, even as it appears in the enigmatic and profound creation of Albrecht Dürer, finds no home in Turner’s protean fairyland – what place could it have in a cosmic dream? Humanity does not appear there, except perhaps as stage characters at whom we hardly glance. Turner’s pictures fascinate us and yet we think of nothing precise, nothing human, only unforgettable colours and phantoms that lay hold on our imaginations. Humanity really only inspires him when linked with the idea of death – a strange death, more a lyrical dissolution – like the finale of an opera.

Nature & Wilderness Poetic Journey Exploration Coming of Age Identity Family

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 4.1 (50)

Includes Goodreads, Amazon, LibraryThing

GenreOther

Length2 hrs 18 mins

Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices

FormateBook with Audio

LanguageEnglish

1Introduction

2Self-Portrait, c. 1798

3Biography

4Folly Bridge and Bacon’s Tower, Oxford, 1787

5Harewood House from the South-East, 1798

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6The Archbishop’s Palace, Lambeth, RA 1790

7Interior of King John’s Palace, Eltham, c. 1791

8The Pantheon, the Morning after the Fire, RA 1792

9Tom Tower, Christ Church, Oxford, 1792

10St Anselm’s Chapel, with part of Thomas-à-Becket’s Crown Canterbury Cathedral, RA 1794

11Fishermen at Sea, RA 1796

12Llandaff Cathedral, South Wales, RA 1796

13Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, RA 1796

14Trancept of Ewenny Priory, Glamorganshire, RA 1797

15Self-Portrait, 1798

16The Dormitory and Transept of Fountains Abbey – Evening, 1798

17View of Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden, 1798

18Abergavenny Bridge, Monmouthshire, Clearing up after a Showery Day, 1799

19Constance, 1842

20Dolbadern Castle, North Wales, 1800

21Caernarvon Castle, North Wales, RA 1800

22Sunshine on the Tamar, 1800

23Dutch Boats in a Gale: Fishermen Endeavouring to Put Their Fish on Board (‘The Bridgewater Seapiece’), RA 1801

24Interior of Salisbury Cathedral, Looking Towards the North Transept, c. 1802-05

25South View from the Cloisters, Salisbury Cathedral, c. 1802

26Calais Pier, with French Fishermen Preparing for Sea: an English Packet Arriving, RA 1803

27High Street, Oxford, 1803

28Richmond Hill, c. 1825

29The Passage of Mount St Gothard, Taken from the Centre of the Teufels Broch (Devil’s Bridge), Switzerland

30The Shipwreck, 1805

31The Thames near Walton Bridges, c. 1805

32Sun Rising Through Vapour; Fishermen Cleaning and Selling Fish, RA 1807

33Pope’s Villa at Twickenham, 1808

34Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, 1809

35The Fall of an Avalanche in the Grisons, 1810

36The Wreck of a Transport Ship, c. 1810

37Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps, RA 1812

38Frontispiece of ‘Liber Studiorum’, 1812

39Mer de Glace, in the Valley of Chamouni, Switzerland, c. 1814

40Dido Building Carthage; or, the Rise of the Carthaginian Empire, RA 1815

41Crossing the Brook, 1815

42Norham Castle on the Tweed, 1816

43The Temple of Jupiter Panellenius Restored, RA 1816

44The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire – Rome being determined on the Overthrow of her Hated Rival, demanded from her such Terms as might either force her into War, or ruin her by Compliance: the Enervated Carthaginians, in their Anxiety for Peace, consented to give up even their Arms or their Children, RA 1817

45Crook of Lune, Looking Towards Hornby Castle, c. 1817

46Mount Vesuvius in Eruption, 1817

47Marxbourg and Brugberg on the Rhine, 1820

48Mosel Bridge at Coblenz, 1817

49First-Rate, Taking in Stores, 1818

50Dort, or Dordrecht, The Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed, RA 1818