Past Exhibition

J.M.W. Turner

We look across a glittering waterway lined with long, low boats and sailboats at an ivory-white church in the distance to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and wispy white clouds sweep across the brilliant azure-blue sky above. A row of buildings comes into view lining the canal to our right, with a terracotta-orange building followed by a cream-white building beyond, both angled toward the church. The church has a high dome rising over the temple-like front, which has columns supporting a triangular pediment. A tall bell tower rises to the left of the church. The low boats, gondolas, to our left are packed with people while a few gondolas floating in the center of the canal appear occupied only by their gondoliers who stand holding their poles. Painted in tones of ivory and peach, the sails of boats behind the gondolas to our left billow in the breeze while the sails of vessels docked to our right are furled. The structures, boats, and people cast shimmering reflections on the gently rippling surface of the water in the canal. Rows of boats and buildings lining the canal extend into the deep, hazy distance to our left.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore, 1834, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.85

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 72 through 82
We look across a glittering waterway lined with long, low boats and sailboats at an ivory-white church in the distance to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and wispy white clouds sweep across the brilliant azure-blue sky above. A row of buildings comes into view lining the canal to our right, with a terracotta-orange building followed by a cream-white building beyond, both angled toward the church. The church has a high dome rising over the temple-like front, which has columns supporting a triangular pediment. A tall bell tower rises to the left of the church. The low boats, gondolas, to our left are packed with people while a few gondolas floating in the center of the canal appear occupied only by their gondoliers who stand holding their poles. Painted in tones of ivory and peach, the sails of boats behind the gondolas to our left billow in the breeze while the sails of vessels docked to our right are furled. The structures, boats, and people cast shimmering reflections on the gently rippling surface of the water in the canal. Rows of boats and buildings lining the canal extend into the deep, hazy distance to our left.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore, 1834, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.85

Overview: This comprehensive survey of the work of J. M. W. Turner included 147 paintings and watercolors and 1 drawing by the artist. Many of the works were selected from Tate Britain and others were on loan from public and private collections in Great Britain and North America. The works were organized in chronological sections highlighting stages in the artist's career. His largest painting and only royal commission, The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, was loaned to the exhibition from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. 12 paintings and watercolors depicted the burning of the Houses of Parliament on October 16, 1834. The final section of the installation was devoted to the artist's unfinished works, which had not been exhibited during his lifetime.

The department of exhibition programs produced J.M.W. Turner, a 30-minute documentary film narrated by Jeremy Irons. The film was shown continuously in the West Building, Ground Floor, Project Room during the exhibition and was broadcast on Maryland Public Television. An audio tour was narrated by National Gallery of Art Director Earl A. Powell with commentary by exhibition curators Ian Warrell and Franklin Kelly. Voices of London, a concert of 18th- and 19th-century English composers, was presented on October 14.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in association with Tate Britain, London. Curators were Franklin Kelly, senior curator of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Dorothy Kosinski, senior curator of painting and sculpture and The Barbara Thomas Lemmon Curator of European Art, Dallas Museum of Art; and Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Curator in Charge of the Department of 19th-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in association with Ian Warrell, curator of 18th- and 19th-century British art, Tate Britain.

Sponsor: The exhibition at the National Gallery of Art was sponsored by The Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art. It was supported by Access Industries. Bank of America was the national sponsor. The exhibition was supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. The film was was made possible by the HRH Foundation.

Attendance: 237,851

Catalog: J. M. W. Turner, edited by Ian Warrell with an essay by Franklin Kelly. London: Tate Publishing, 2007.

Brochure: J. M. W. Turner, by Margaret Doyle. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 2007.

Other Venues:

  • Dallas Museum of Art, 02/10/2008–05/18/2008
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 06/24/2008–09/21/2008

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