Turner and the Masters

by David Solkin (Editor)

Turner and the Masters juxtaposes J.M.W. Turner's greatest paintings alongside works by old masters and contemporaries that he hoped to imitate, rival, and surpass. Published to accompany a major international exhibition, it explores for the first time how Turner's responses to other artists were both acts of homage and a sophisticated form of art criticism, designed to demonstrate his understanding of great art and his ability to equal and even outshine the most celebrated exponents of the landscape tradition.
With some 100 works reproduced in glorious colorplates, the book includes paintings by Claude, Canaletto, Ruisdael, Van de Velde, Poussin, Rubens, Rembrandt, Constable, Bonington and many others who Turner knew personally.  The paintings and text together reveal the artist's debts and rivalries in an exciting and often unpredictable way, serving to further re-establish Turner's reputation as the one of the greatest—and most beloved—of landscape painters

Genres: Art

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[Lazarus P Badpenny Esq]

Thames-side today I found myself standing in front of any number of flinty seascapes, frolicking shepherdesses, and sundry Venetian scenes as I joined the bourgeoisie polishing its baubles at the Tate. Catalogues for these kinds of exhibitions have become almost compulsory given the proximity issues associated with the crowds of coached-in Sunday watercolourists, Miss-Marple-lookalikes, and suchlike.