The life of Turner and some of his Masterworks

The life of Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in late April or early May 1775 at ’21,Maiden Lane, convert Garden, London. His father, William, was a wigmaker and then he started cutting hair since wigmaker went out of fashion in the 1770s. Little was known about his mother, Mary (nee Marshall). His sister had a fatal illness, when Turner was only eleven years old. She died in 1786 and a year before Turner`s sister was dead, he moved with his uncle in Brentford, in a small market in the west of London.

Turner`s second home at 26, Maiden Lane, Convert Garden, 1852, watercolour, British Museum, London. This place is also his birthplace.

The first move that Turner made was in 1786, by attending school in Margate, a small holiday resort on the Thames estuary. He did several perspective drawings there and he finished school by the late 1780s. When he went back to London he started working some different architects or architectural topography.

Thomas Malton, Jr influenced him on his work and he went for the second time to school at the Royal Academy in 1789. They did not learn much to paint but the paintings were intended on the curriculum in 1816. They drew, from plaster casts of antique statuary to some other works of the nude. They took about two and a half years to make the move and Turner exhibited for the first time in 1790, at the Royal Academy School. He participates some contemporary art until 1850.

In that era the Royal Academy did one exhibition every year. In the 1790 Turner moved in Oxford Street to learn a lesson to move his art into dimensions of light and colours previously unknown to paintings. He also created several drawings that consist on nature of watercolours. In 1791, he made some other works as a scene painter at the Pantheon Opera House in Oxford Street.

 The Pantheon, the morning after the fire, RA 1792, watercolour, Turner Bequest, Tate Britain, London. 

The Pantheon Opera house in Oxford street was burnt down by arsonists on 14 February 1792. 

Basically Turner was doing good work till in the 1793, the Royal Society of Arts awarded him from his ‘Great Silver Pallet’ award for the landscape drawing. The youth was selling works easily and in 1790s they gave them the opportunity by giving private lessons He met different Artists during 1794 and 1797, some of which made friends with. By the time, he improved in his Art works and did more works. Hid did several works that are Romantic Paintings and by the time he moved his art to impressionism and also to an abstract way.

This picture is an Attic in Turner`s house in Maiden Lane, Convert Garden, said to have been Turner`s first studio, 1852, watercolour, British Museum, London.

If we look at his master-works that turner made we cannot forget the first painting that he made. The first painting was ‘The Archbishop`s Palace, Lambeth’, that was made in 1790, by using watercolours. He exhibited this painting at the Royal Academy for the first time. It was a perspective drawing and he was influenced from Thomas Malton, Jr when he was just fifteen years old. I think that Turner wants to show the importance of the people and directions that they are going by putting a bright light and shadow. He also put importance on the buildings. The colours that he used were orange, yellow and brown and the mood was calm. In my opinion I think that he wanted to use blended colours to give a soft feel for the smooth façade of the buildings.

The Archbishop`s Palace, Lambeth drawing.

In the 1792 Turner drew ‘Tom Tower, Christ Church, and Oxford’. He used pencil and watercolour on white paper as a media. This drawing was never exhibited or sold, that is why it has remained in his bequest. He was inspired from Michael Angelo Rooker`s water colour. He first laid down a wash of a very pale yellow and after it dried he added a wash of light grey. To finish this painting he used a scale of eight tones of light brown grey to dark blue grey. Basically Turner used three colour scales and around twenty-five separate tones. This drawing is made when he was seventeen years old during summer, in the late afternoon sunlight. In my opinion Turner focused more on the tower since the other building are darker in colour. Although the work is very detailed still looks faded on the four right of the drawing I noticed four droplets on the building, unknown if it was intentionally or a mistake.

This is the Tom Tower, Christ Church, Oxford drawing.

In the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1796, Turner did oil on canvas drawing that is called ‘Fishermen at sea’. Before he made this drawing, in 1795 Turner visited this island and made pencil sketches of the bay in his ‘Isle of Wight’ sketchbook. Turner was influenced by the French marine painter Joseph Verner and while the shaping of the clouds demonstrates the influence of Philippe Jacques De Loutherbourg. During the time when Turner painted this picture, he was also strongly influenced by Rembrandt. In my opinion he used dark colours and touches of white to enhance the moonlight. Although we can see some flow of the waves, I noticed that very far out the sea looks calmer. I could not figure out if this painting was drawn before or after a storm.

This is another drawing called "Fishermen at Sea".

This drawing might be the last one that Turner himself could have painted as late as 1850. This work is never exhibited and it is called ‘Yacht approaching the coast’ although I clearly do not see this. The bright light was a resemblance of God that might have been at a time when Turner was passing through a difficult time in his last days. It looks like an abstract drawing and faded colours. His paintings became surreal into a sense that he no longer cared what the critics would say. It was almost as if he knew that he was about to move on to a place of higher divinity. In his last years the paintings no longer appeared to have detail as they became more abstract.

This is made by using oil on canvas that called "Yacht approaching the coast".

Turner died on 19^th December 1851 and was buried in St Paul`s Cathedral. Turner`s work had moved to Queen Anne street Wet and David Place, Cremorne New Road, Chelsea studios. He had more than two thousand paintings and water colours. We can say that Turner had left a beautiful work.  

The death mask of Turner at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Resource:

Shanes. E. 2004. Turner - The life and Masterworks. Third Edition. New York, Usa. Park stone press LTD.

The Pre-Raphaelites

The Pre-Raphaelites were rebellious group of seven that was formed in 1848 as the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.

Pre-Raphaelite means that they went back before Raphael.  They went against the predictability of Contemporary academic painting that most of them were colleagues at the Royal Academy of Art.  They turned to the directness and simplicity of Italian painters and this type of art shows the description of detail, bright colours on different paintings that go back to tempera paint used by medieval artists, religious paintings and also goes through nature.

This is the Royal Academy of Art.

It was a tough life in these days that began the industrial revolution and people were working in different factories.

If we look through every Pre-Raphaelites artist, they had their own inspirations such as,

Rossetti for example “found” he wants to show a London prostitute suffering.

This is "found" made by Rossetti.

Holman Hunt was interested from religious paintings such as a painting called “The holy land by the shores of the Dead Sea”. He used the goat as a symbol or you can say a model to show a message of dying from the study of religious ancient Rabbinic that called Talmud.

This is "The holy land by the shores of the Dead Sea".

There were more interesting paintings from every Artist but the person that kept the group alive was Rossetti by promoting its second generation of Artists.  

Later Rossetti turned to representations of female beauty such for example Proserpine.

This is a portrait of Jane Morris made by Rossetti.

If we go further Rossetti likes William Morris Wife and he also paint different portraits of her. Proserpine was one of them.

The Pre-Raphaelites Art was influenced from many artists and in the twenty-first Century the artist Howard David Johnson was inspired and tries to use that style and he succeeded.

Another portrait made by Howard David Johnson.

If we look closely to this style was a symbolism and made with mix media. It is a similar style like Rossetti`s paintings. For my opinion I think that Johnson tries to combine this style to our representations of females.

Meagher.J, 2004 The Pre Raphaelites,

Available at  http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/praf/hd_praf.htm .

The Exhibition that was "Xebgha Nies"

The Second Exhibition was also held at ST James Cavalier near the one of “Eccentricks”. The name of the exhibition was “Xebgha Nies”; it was about a collective exhibition of nine Maltese artists. From pen and ink to watercolour and oil paintings. There was also ceramic work, bronze and mixed media.

The subject of this exhibition was portraiture, the work could have been created from their own original and unique ideas, such as interesting characters.

If we take a close look at Moira Zahra`s drawing, called “downtown, we notice that the drawing is showing a woman walking with a reddish umbrella. It was made with mixed media and she tried to give importance to the woman by giving it colour. The background is made all with shading.

The drawing "downtown" by Moira Zahra.

Another religious element that Saviour`s show from his work was marvellous and interesting. His subject was about Christian iconography, the drawing that I saw catchy was “the last supper”. For this painting Saviour used oil on canvas and the importance of this drawing was on Jesus.  

"The Last Supper" by Saviour Baldacchino.

Steve Bonello shows an unbelievable work that was done with a pen and ink drawings. Although on the drawing that I liked the most, he uses polychrome colours. This drawing is called “In-Nemmiesa” and he did not use a lot of vibrant colours but he gave the importance to the lady by drawing two men who are looking at her. If I can see i think that he was influenced by pointillism.

"In-Nemmiesa" by Steve Bonello.

Another Artist that impressed me was Andrew Diacono and his most wonderful sculpture was “Man on penny farthing” which is made with mixed media. This sculpture was a man riding a bike which has a big wheel on the front and a smaller one at the back. I liked the texture that he is showing on the fat man.

"Man on penny farthing" by Andrew Diacono.

The other artist that inspired me most was Paul Scerri, this is because his work was different from that of the others and used ceramic to create the sculpture. The most interesting one was “The Braggart- opens your mind before your mouth”. It was amazingly done by using vibrant glazes on this form of a boy which has his mind open. By the boys open mind, Scerri is showing light and made some detail on his hands. 

"The Baggart" by Paul Scerri.

There were more artists who exhibited their work but the most powerful and interesting for me are the ones above. These powerful works had also different formal elements in there work such as Vibrant colours, tone, light, shading, texture etc. 

The Exhibition that was "Eccentricks"

The first exhibition that I entered was “Eccentricks” by Emanuel Bonnici. The date that I went to see this Exhibition was Friday,28th February His works was interesting and funny. Bonnici did several kind of work such as (f)lush, Duo, Hugo, telephone box, The bicycle with boat wheels and some other digital work. His work was inspired from the socio-cultural identity of the Maltese. His work is made by digital art and mix media.

A digital sketch before producing the final piece.

This is the project called (f)lush.

The ‘(f)lush’ was a very interesting object that he created, it consisted of a Maltese boat which was turned into a toilet. Firstly he did a sketch by digital art and then gave it life by using mix media.

This is a telephone box.

The Telephone box was another piece of work done by Bonnici. I was inspired from the fact that he tries to make something traditional appear modern.

The three clocks that are called "Hugo".

There were these three different coloured clocks that Bonnici called “Hugo”. This work was amazing for the originality that Bonnici showed, by creating a contrast from one clock to another. The originality of these clocks is that they have the guitar neck combined with a clock. 

A digital sketch of the chair.

This is the chair that called "Duo"

This chair was made from wood; he created a cart-like rocking-chair with the idea of a wooden cart which goes through our Maltese tradition.

Another digital sketch.

The bicycle that is combined with wooden cart wheels.

The green Bike is another interesting object made from a wheel of a Cart; he combined them with a Bicycle. He used our traditional colours of the Cart.

Some other digital sketches.

Another fascinating work was the digital art, which he left them plain and simple.

The other work that we had seen were very interesting and he used variety of vibrant colours and light colours too, texture, shapes, forms etc. We can learn also from the fact that he tried to combine two things together and they were all traditional work.