PAINTING SET FREE: J.M.W. Turner Exhibit at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA

Snow Storm–Steam-Boat off a Harbor’s Mouth by J.M.W. Turner

Several weeks ago, when we were in the Bay Area, we made a special trip into San Francisco  to see the spectacular exhibit of Turner paintings at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) is one of England's most renowned and prolific painters. This show features works from the last fifteen years of Turner’s life, from 1835 to 1850, a period when some of his most famous paintings, such as Snow Storm–Steam-Boat off a Harbor’s Mouth and The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons were created. In these, and other paintings in the exhibit, the canvases swirl with color and light and sky and water seem to merge. In many, the actual subjects become almost secondary to the texture and physical qualities of the paint. Although Turner’s painted more than a century ago, his art feels supremely modern.

These three paintings, illustrating scenes from Virgil's Aeneid, were the last works Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.

Turner loved to travel, which I learned both from the exhibit and from the movie Mr. Turner (Sony Classics, 2014), which I saw earlier this year. In summer, Turner journeyed all over Europe, filling notebooks and sketch pads with scenes of his travels. One room of the exhibit features Turner's “sample studies” which are rough watercolors of various scenic views. When he returned home to London, patrons could choose from these samples and he would create a finished painting for them.

Blue Rigi, sample painting; the Rigi is a large mountain in Switzerland near Lake Lucerne

The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, finished painting

In the movie it is clear that Turner was a man who marched to his own drummer and that he liked to experience life intensely. He claimed that his painting of the Snow Storm was painted after he had sailors lash him to the mast of the boat so that he could feel and experience the wind and power of the storm first hand. Although this claim has never been substantiated, the painting certainly evokes the crashing waves and violent swirl of the elements.

Norham Castle, Sunrise (1845)

The final room of the exhibit displays some of Turner’s most luminescent works. These include Norham Castle, Sunrise (1845) in which the objects seem to float in space and the painting seems to glow from within. Turner's greatness is that he was able to convey the emotional truth of his subjects.

J. M. W. Turner: Painting Set Free was organized by Tate Britain in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. It is on exhibit at the de Young from June 20 to September 20, 2015.