Turner and The Masters at Tate Britain.

Joseph Mallord William Turner was without doubt one of Britain's finest artists, and the current exhibition at Tate Britain gives an interesting view of his work. Like most great artists through the ages he was well aware of the work that had proceeded him, and was influenced it in many ways. As a student he was encouraged to copy from the works of the great masters, and the earliest paintings on display were his copies of works by Piranesi and the English watercolourist Paul Sandby. Like many other painters he also did work that was his version of an older painters work. Fairly early on in his career he was influenced by the work of Claude Lorraine and this was illustrated by a painting by Claude illuminated by golden light and Constable's work in which he tried to emulate a similar lighting effect. He was also influenced by Rembrandt's use of moonlight to highlight the main subject in a work, Flight into Egypt, but I was not convinced that his attempt was anywhere as effective. He was often called upon to execute works as companion pieces to existing works owned by his clients. Early in the exhibition we are shown a storm at sea painting executed as a companion piece to a Van Der Velde work of a similar subject. In this case I felt that though Turners' painting of the sea was superior, Van der Velde's depiction was a better composition and worked much better. Poussin's work, The Deluge, was criticized by Turner for its poor drawing though he liked its subtle colouring. His own version was very much more dramatic. He adapted Claude's style for his English landscapes and I thought that he was much more naturalistic. However I did not think that his utilisation of the styles of Watteau, Cuyp or Rembrandt were very successful. The same applied when he tried to paint genre paintings in the style of Teniers, where his younger rival David Wilkie was much more successful. They also showed his painting of ' Jessica, a Girl at a Window', against Rembrandt's beautiful 'Girl in a Window', which was an absolute disaster. It was a pleasure to go into the next room which displayed his work against similar subjects by Canaletto and Ruisdael. Personally I much prefer his Venetian paintings to those of Canaletto, which I find very dead and lacking in life, whereas Turner's are full of life and excitement. He obviously was very keen on Ruisdael , who inspired him to produce some of his most dynamic and atmospheric seascapes, in which he immortalised Ruisdael by inventing a fictitious place called Ruisdael as the location. The next room compared his work with his contemporaries in Great Britain, and he was in my opinion superior to most of his opposition, with the exception of his friend Richard Parkes Bonington, who unfortunately died before he was able to reach his full potential. Alongside a painting by Bonington, there is a very nice small tribute by Turner. It is impossible to judge him in comparison with Constable, as the only Constable painting displayed is so dissimilar to the Turner displayed next to it. The Constable is a painting crammed with detail, and not at all typical of his work, whilst the Turner is a simple seascape with minimal detail. The only thing they have in common is that they were both displayed at the same RA Summer exhibition, where Turner annoyed Constable by painting in a red buoy on varnishing day which brought the whole painting to life, and destroyed the overwhelming effect of Constable's painting. It was a pity that there were so few of Turner's watercolours on display, but I found it a very interesting exhibition, which showed the great influence that Claude had over Turner, and that Turner was finest at painting atmospheric land and seascapes, but less good at religious scenes and genre paintings. The exhibition is at the Tate Britain until 31st January, and I would recomend that you go as early in the day as possible as it gets very crowded later in the day.