Recent Events

Talk by Cecilia Powell. Although Turner is rightly acclaimed for his originality, we should not forget that his work was grounded in his admiration for the art of the past, where a major role was often played by mythology.

A reception to mark the issue in February of the new £20 note featuring Turner. Senior officers of the Bank will talk about the process of selection and design leading to the new banknote and Pieter van der Merwe, Chairman of the Turner Society and a maritime historian, will discuss The Fighting Temeraire which is depicted on the note.

Our former Chairman Andrew Wilton will speak about the genesis of his recently published Turnerian novel The Painter’s Boy: An Historical Caprice.

Talk by Colin Harrison

To celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of John Ruskin on 8 February 1819, Colin Harrison, Senior Curator of European Art in the Department of Western Art, will introduce a selection of the Turner watercolours presented by Ruskin to his old university, together with other watercolours which formed part of the Teaching Collection in the Ruskin School of Drawing.

The Society will make a return visit to Petworth House for a tour guided by its Collections Manager, Andrew Loukes. After picnicking or lunching at Petworth, we shall also visit Fittleworth Mill from 2.30 p.m., where we shall be shown round by a member of the owner’s family and be served light refreshments.

Lecture by Nicola Moorby

2019 marks two hundred years since one of Turner’s most significant European expeditions, his first tour of Italy, an experience which both consolidated and expanded his landscape vision. Drawing upon recent cataloguing of the Italian sketchbooks, this talk will discuss his approach to Italy’s treasures and traditions and examine how he assimilated that material within his wider practice.

Talk by Nick Reese

Following last year’s highly successful talk on the West Country drawings, Nick Reese examines Turner’s drawings made in and around Petworth and Fittleworth, destinations which the Society is to visit in June.

Private view introduced by Anne Hodge

Anne Hodge, the Gallery’s Curator of Prints and Drawings, will provide us with private access to the annual display of the Vaughan Bequest and accompanying material, prior to the display being open to the public.

Including ‘Turner’s Titles’ – lecture by Nick Powell.

Does it matter what we call Turner’s paintings? Theories about painting titles have been developed, broadly speaking, only in relation to the modern period, starting in the second half of the nineteenth century; Turner is the one earlier artist who has received much attention from the theorists. This talk will look at the remarkable variety of methods employed to identify/explain Turner’s works from his lifetime to the present day: by the artist himself, printmakers, cataloguers, curators and registrars. It will consider just what counts as a title and will examine the purpose (or purposes) of Turner titles and their effect on the viewer.

Lecture by Franny Moyle. Franny Moyle writes: ‘Turner was born in London in 1775, a Georgian, and died in 1851, a Victorian. My book The Extraordinary Life and Momentous Times of J.M.W. Turner gave me one of the most compelling reasons to look again at Turner’s biography and to re-establish the achievements of the lesser recognised Georgian Turner alongside the more familiar and popular output of the Victorian man. As part of this I asked whether there was a consistent world view of Turner shared between these two versions. By the end of the research I felt sure there was.’