JMW Turner In Romanticism

FRINQ 132K

Research Paper

Ana Plugatar

02/18/16

Joseph Mallord William Turner

In

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic movement that originated in Europe in the end of 18th century (1790-1850). Its primary focus lay in the adoration of individualism within nature through the emphasis on emotion.

Understanding Romanticism is impossible without defining the idea of the sublime. In Edmund Burke’s Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (305) he describes the sublime as the quality that awakens the deepest feelings in the artist- the beauty and the horror, astonishment, terror, the greatness of dimension, pain, danger and admiration- a certain fascination of the abomination. The individual’s needs and desires were paramount. The nature was a totality of everything- wild and vast and unpredictable in its phenomenal magnitude.

In Caspar David Fredrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog the size and the power of nature is depicted perfectly, wrapping and unraveling as far the eye can see, with rolling hills and jagged pillars in colors of cold balance, and in the center of it all is the man- the picture of utter physical and spiritual solitude which, according to romantics, was the only way to truly embrace the full potential of emotion and self- expression. In order to discover one’s artistic ability one was to get away from tradition, the imposed laws and structuralism, empiricism and the artificial genesis of political order and value emotion above reason, give way to imagination and seep through the sublime. Friedrich also remarked “the artist’s feeling is his law”.

Romanticism gave way to individualism, irrationality and freedom of thought, along with the limitless possibilities of style. The artists of that time began to question the strict order of social structure and religion, they promoted and investigated human ethnic origin. Traditional procedures were ignored and the discovery of the mysterious, the mad, the unusual was acquired through the means of imagination of the idealists minds. Romantic artists refused to follow the narrow views the society has been imposing on them for years, therefore they were often deemed delusional.

Like many romantics, William Turner was fascinated by nature and human connection to it. He is known to the world as one of the greatest landscape painters of the 19th century, bearing the name of “the painter of light”. However, as it turned out, there was also a darker side to him, the one that wouldn’t keep quiet and eventually shock the Britannia of that age.

Turner was born in London in 1775. His father was a barber and his mother was a butcher. Perhaps part of the reason why he saw the darker colors of this world was the guilt he bore for confining his mother when she went mad after death of his little sister. She died four years after. Turner’s talent was evident since the very beginning. He first began to express his interest in painting in a small town on the banks of River Thames, where he was forced to move away from the urban noise he had such trouble settling in. It is there, among the tranquil whispers of the fields and shimmering waters that he fell in love with the perfect Britain. The works inspired by this sublime image gave him a raging success.

Turner had the ability to improvise with his art, developing a quite unique style. Although oil was his strong suit, he is also known for his skill in watercolor, ofttimes combining the two together. His exquisite way of blending light into the natural palette of shimmering colors has a breathtaking effect. This was the Turner Britain liked.

Fishermen at Sea, 1796

The Fighting Temeraire

He was accepted into the Royal Academy of Art schools in 1789. Upon becoming a member it was accustomed to present the council with a painting. Deeming Turner “as comfortably British as a cup of tea” he was expected to stick to his public- pleasing, pleasure- seeking habits. Instead he gave them the Dolbadarn Castle in Snowdonia 1800.

“How awful is the silence of the waste,

Where nature lifts her mountains to the sky.

Majestic solitude, behold the tower, where hapless Owen long imprisoned pined, and wrung his hands for liberty in vein.”

Turner highlights the background of the painting to emphasize the desolation of the prince. The tragic symbol of imprisoned liberty.

Greatly influenced by Walter Fawkes, a political militant friend Turner made in the Royal Academy, he began to see Britain for what it really was during that time of hardship and distress, projecting it onto his works. Suffering and salvation was the theme of his greatest period in painting. Instead of the airy luminosity of pigments Turner began incorporating denser hues, showing off the sullen, frozen earth with rutted tracks and a freshly dug grave in the Frosty Morning (1813).

One work of his that cause perhaps the most spite of the public, which called it a “detestable absurdity” was The Slave Ship (1840). This is where the change in his style seems most obvious.

In 1781 the British slaver, the Zong was at the coast of Jamaica after harvesting slaves. On his return journey his profits began to get sick and died at an unusual rate. 145 people were thrown overboard and deemed “loses at sea”, since it was the only way Captain Collingwood would receive compensation for his cargo. This horrid tragedy is depicted in the painting, with a sea full of broken shackles and torn off limbs, being ripped apart by fish, hands pleading to the sky full of blood and in the middle, exactly what would be the last thing a dying man saw right before his last minutes- the blinding sunlight. Turner dug his frustrations into the painting, disregarding the rules of art. This caused a massive uproar of critics and such, since this was obviously not something the public wanted to see. But the perfect form between the powerful message and form made this the greatest picture of the 19th century. However this was the artist Britain scorned at.

Through the obscurity of objects and intense harmony of hues, Turner portrays the ultimate beauty of nature, the powerlessness of feeble human existence against its immense forces. And yet condensed emotions present in each of his works still leave room for creative interpretation on the wings of imagination. It is said, although not confirmed, that Turner often went out and experienced things he was about to paint- spending days on a boat, sketching his feelings or rushing to a burning tower among the first observers. The ultimate originality of his masterpieces still speaks to the heart of many today.

Turner never got married. Living together with his father, who became his assistant and one of the closest friends, he was crushed by his sudden death is 1829 and would plunge into a period of depression. Turner’s last words are believed to be “the sun is God”. He died on 19 December 1851 in Cheyne Walk, London.

Citations:

1. E.g. HB Garland, Storm and Stress (London, 1952)

2. Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: Oxford University (1990).

3. Moffat, Charles. Romanticism (1790-1850), The Art History Archive, Web, Toronto 2006, updated November 2010

4. The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. Romanticism, Web, Chicago 2014

5. 1796: Fishermen at Sea, oil on canvas, 36 × 48 1⁄8 in., Tate Gallery, London

6. 1944: Rain, Steam and Speed_ The Great Western Railway, oil on canvas, Nationall Gallery, London

7. Shanes, Erik. The life and masterworks of J. M. W. Turner. New York: Parkstone Press (2008).

8. Herrmann, Luke. Joseph Mallord William Turner. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press) October 2006.

9. Brown, David. “J.M.W Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours”. Web. December 2014

10. Burke, Edmund. Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful. London, 1889

11. Wilton, Andrew. J.M.W Turner: his Art and Life. Thames & Hudson. November, 1985.