Featured is image a close up of Joseph Mallord William Turner – Heidelberg (about 1846) – photograph of paintings taken by Rachel Bolton at National Galleries of Scotland.
For the last 100 years Edinburgh’s National Gallery has celebrated the renowned English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner by holding Turner in January, an annual exhibition filled with watercolour works completed throughout his travels. Although you can already see some of Turner’s other pieces throughout the year, the works specifically featured in Turner in January, are extra special. All the work in the collection was left to Scotland in 1900 by the late art collector, Henry Vaughan, under strict instructions that the pieces could only be shown when light levels were at their lowest – January. Because of this, audiences are given a rare glimpse of Turner’s watercolour archive each year, before it is packed away again on February 1st.
I had wanted to visit Turner in January for a while, but had accidentally left it until its last day – January 31st. I woke up to a very dark, gloomy and wet morning in Edinburgh, which meant the perfect day for a gallery visit. This was my first visit to the exhibition, so I was excited to see it with truly fresh eyes.
However, upon arrival at the gallery I was told to expect (at least) an hours wait in a long queue before actually reaching the exhibition. This had been prefaced on the website but I had chosen to ignore it, so I queued. Chairs were provided if needed and the queue ended up going rather quickly, through quick sketches and jokes about installing one long pew with my neighbouring waiters. In no more than 50 minutes, I was in.
Obviously from the queue I could see which room we were headed towards, but once within the exhibit, I was disappointed to find out only the one small room was used. It was easy to understand why the queue moved so quickly once I saw how small the exhibition was.
In terms of the work itself, I was pleasantly surprised. The problem I find with watercolour paintings, is that due to their muted colour palette, they often have a tendency to look very similar, no matter who the artist is. Although this was the case for a few of the Turner paintings, there were also plenty that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Turner takes you on a trip around the Europe, spanning from the great waterfalls on the Isle of Skye, all the way to the mighty Lake Albano near Rome. Through this journey, you not only get to see beautiful paintings, but also witness what life was like across Europe in the 1800’s. Although there are lots of landscapes, some paintings discuss Turner’s personal life and his friendship with Sir Walter Scott. One of my personal favourites was the triptych featuring Cheifswood Cottage, Abbotsford (1831-2), Loch Coruisk, Skye (1831-2) and Melrose (1831-2) (see above). Through these paintings, not only does Turner explore very personal aspects of his life, but does so through such immense attention to detail through individual paintings that are no more than A6 in size. If they were bigger, they may not hold as much gravitas, but there is something truly special about a piece of art if you have to almost press your nose up to the glass just to see just how tiny every single brush stroke is.
In comparison, I found some of Turner’s bigger landscapes slightly dull, however, if you focus on the smaller works, you are sure to find something that surprises you, just as it did me. It may be the techniques used, such as on Verrès in the Val D’Aosta (about 1836-40) which show how a nibbed pen and red ink were used to add tiny details to the architectural elements of the town, or it may be that you fall in love with how Turner apparently used his thumbnail to scratch highlights out of the paper surface in The Piazza, Venice (1840).
All in all, if you are visiting Edinburgh next year, this exhibition is definitely something you should see. While the mornings are sometimes still cold and the weather is gloomy, Turner in January offers a sliver of colour whilst we wait for Spring to arrive.
