How JMW Turner's Painting Styled Evolved
By Jim Hingst
Over
his lifetime (1775-1851), JMW Turner’s style evolved from rendering relatively
accurate details in landscape scenery and architecture, albeit greatly idealized,
to depicting abstract forms, dramatic lighting and luminous color. Turner was
certainly capable of realistic painting, having been employed early in his
career as a draftsman and copyist.
In
one of his early oil paintings Fishermen
at Sea, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1796, the sea and clouds are much
more defined and sculpted than in later years. This traditional maritime scene helped firmly
establish Turner’s reputation as an oil painter. Later paintings were more experimental
and less structured.
 |
| Turner's moonlit scene of fishermen at sea was his first oil painting exhibited at the Royal Academy. (Owned by the Tate Gallery.) |
Turner
often used a palette knife to thickly apply paint, but he also smeared paint on
his canvases with his fingers or rags. The impasto technique, which he
employed, provided his paintings with a textural quality that complimented his
expressionist style. As one of the greatest landscape artists in
any period of art, as well as being Britain's greatest watercolorist, no one painted the sky or sea with so much passion as did
Turner.
In
his painting of the slave ship (below), Turner is less concerned with accurately representing an event than conveying raw emotion. Turner ostensibly had
intended to shock the audience by showing the brutality of slavery. Instead of
eliciting a response to the theme of slavery, the art critics vehemently
criticized him for the stylistics of his abstracted forms.
 |
Painted in 1840, Turner’s The Slave Ship
depicts slavers throwing dead and dying slaves overboard. Slavery, incidentally, was abolished in
England in 1833.
|
Known
for his wispy cirrus clouds and turbulent seas, JMW Turner experimented not
only with the techniques of painting, but also adopted many of the new paint
formulations introduced in the 19th century. Sadly, some of these
new synthetic pigments, as well as dye-based colors, which he incorporated in
his oil paintings, are not lightfast.
In
his color selection and techniques, Turner had attempted to reproduce the
luminous effects in oil painting that he achieved with watercolors. His fascination
with the effects of light and color greatly influenced many Impressionists and Post Impressionists, such
as Monet, as many art historians have noted.
In
the three paintings, shown below, you can note the similarities in color selection
and subject matter from the two periods of art. Turner was particularly interested in the grandeur, beauty and
power of nature, compared to the vulnerability and precarious condition of man.
 |
Westminster Sunset by JMW Turner, 1800 (This picture is
in the public domain.)
|
 |
San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk, painted by Claude Monet
(This is one of at least six versions, all of which are in the public domain,
that Monet painted in c. 1908.)
|
 |
| Monet's Houses of Parliament painted c. 1900. |
What differs between
Turner and Monet is how each artist applied the paints. Turner handled paint in
a much more fluid and dynamic manner compared to the Impressionist technique. In contrast, Impressionist painters would dab on pure, unmixed colors to reproduce the shimmering sensations of light and to suggest movement.
To create his atmospheric effects, Turner would often smear wet paint. He also employed negative application of paint, in which some of an applied glaze was blotted away from the surface. Clearly Turner was a painter ahead of his times, which explains the growing interest in his paintings in the 21st century.
To create his atmospheric effects, Turner would often smear wet paint. He also employed negative application of paint, in which some of an applied glaze was blotted away from the surface. Clearly Turner was a painter ahead of his times, which explains the growing interest in his paintings in the 21st century.
About Jim Hingst: Sign business authority on vehicle wraps, vinyl graphics, screen printing, marketing, sales, gold leaf, woodcarving and painting.
After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.
Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer. Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.
Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 190 articles for publications, such as Signs Canada, SignCraft, Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 500 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published. Vinyl Sign Techniques is available at sign supply distributors and at Amazon.
© 2019 Jim Hingst, All Rights Reserved.
Tidak ada komentar :
Posting Komentar
Leave A Comment...