Yesterday the Hub and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Vaughan Bequest of Turner paintings at the Scottish National Academy. The condition of the bequest was that the paintings should only be shown in January, having the lowest light of the year, to help preserve them. (Though since they are shown in artificial light, perhaps the low light of January is irrelevant.)
It is a wonderful restriction - since it means we actually make the effort to go every January and it makes it a more special visit. It is also a small collection which again is good because it forces one to take time and study them in more depth. I usually focus in on o
ne or two - different ones from previous years, to really get to know them.
ne or two - different ones from previous years, to really get to know them. This year the ones that caught my eye were influenced by our Italian holiday of this summer. One of Monte Rosa because this was the mountain we could see from our rented apartment by Lake Orta. Though we only saw a sliver of the snow-capped serrated teeth of Monte Rosa tinged pink in the early morning peeping over green wooded mountains, hidden when the heat haze came down, reappearing at dusk, tinged pink at sunset, then changing to blue. We took hundreds of photos of the light changes from our window. Still, the light in my photo doesn't look up to much compared to Turner's!
From a painterly point of view, I love the 'The Sun of Venice', of boats on the Venice Lagoon for the light effects where the background has dissolved. (The gloriously golden light on the boats does not show up online. Another reason why one has to visit paintings i
n the 'flesh'.)
n the 'flesh'.)Interesting notes at the exhibition about Turner's use of blue paper. On the two occasions I have visited Venice I have never seen light effects like these. Either it was hazy in August heat, or misty in October with milky opaque water. Perhaps Turner manipulated the light effects, as he did the perspective of buildings (or even changed their position from one part of the city to another)? Another reason to return to Venice - in a different month - perhaps spring/early summer in the hope of catching such light?
Which sends me off into reminiscence. Not only is Turner reputed to have said that the light in Venice but the light on the Thames from his house on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea was the most beautiful in the world. I may not have seen this light in Venice but I did see the early morning light hazy through the mist rising off the Thames on a daily occurence back in the early 70s when I lived with a group of others off Cheyne Walk - when I say 'off', we couldn't afford the astronomical rents of Chelsea (or World's End, to be accurate) even in those days, and we lived in a houseboat! Very romantic, until rheumatism and rats finally sent me back on land. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/?initial=T&artistId=5582&artistName=Joseph%20Mallord%20William%20Turner&submit=1
No comments:
Post a Comment