Turner and the sea

Lovely exhibition at the National Maritime Museum looking at Turner’s sea paintings.

It is well worth taking the audio tour as it adds lots of context, both historic and contemporary. I liked the touch of interviewing life boat men and fishermen to listen to next to relevant pictures. However it is also good at explaining how the pictures were viewed at the time what stage of the Napoleonic war pictures were painted at.

Most importantly thought these were stunning pictures and all the better for seeing them in the flesh as you could see the minimal brush stokes which sometimes made up the waves and the thickness of the white paint denoting the crests of waves. The sense of light in them was stunning and I had never thought of clouds being back lit by the sun before.

I particularly liked the section on the Battle of Trafalgar including Turners huge picture of the aftermath. I would have been there at the time in the queue to see what was not just a picture but also a theatrical experience.

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