Norham Castle, Sunrise, about 1845, Joseph Mallord William Turner. Oil on canvas, 35 3/4 x 48 in. Tate: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856. Photo © Tate, London 2014
“I think Turner would have loved this place,” said Tate Britain curator Amy Concannon. She had brought one of the shipments of Turner’s works for the exhibition J. M. W. Turner: Painting Set Free, now at the Getty Museum and traveling to the de Young in June. I heartily agreed. We talked a bit about what this great painter of nature would have loved about Los Angeles.
Water
Over half of Turner’s painted oeuvre consists of marine subjects. He was obsessed with the elemental power of seas and oceans, the effects of the combination of water and light in Venice (Italy), and he frequently enjoyed fishing trips. If he lived today, would he be found watching shipping in the port of Los Angeles, or fishing from one of the local piers? Perhaps he would live in Santa Monica, along with so many other British expats.
What would Turner have done with L.A. sunsets, like this one looking seaward from the Getty Center?
Mountains and Canyons
Particularly in later years, Turner adored the drama of Swiss and German alpine scenery and the way the scale dwarfed human activity. He would have loved local places such as Topanga Canyon or Solstice Canyon and the Santa Monica Mountains, even more the awesome majesty of further-afield sights such as Yosemite. Toward the end of his life he expressed a desire to see Niagara Falls, but he never made it there.
The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, 1842, Joseph Mallord William Turner. Watercolor on paper, 11 11/16 x 17 11/16 in. Tate: Purchased with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation and including generous support from David and Susan Gradel, and from other members of the public through the Save the Blue Rigi appeal) Tate Members and other donors 2007. Photo © Tate, London 2014
Vistas
Turner would have enjoyed sketching the vistas from places such as, well, um, the Getty. He sketched in pencil and watercolor from morning to night and would particularly have relished the sunrises and sunsets enjoyed here every day. But he might have preferred more clouds.
Los Angeles vista from the top of our favorite hill
The Sun
Ah, the sun. “The sun is God,” Turner once said, and it features prominently in many of his later works. He was a noted devotee of sun-staring (sun-gazing), which involves staring with the naked eye directly at the sun. This now-discredited practice was reputed to relax the eyes, but for Turner it resulted in a glassblower’s cataract. Recently it has been noted that this would have limited his perception of the color yellow, thus perhaps causing an overuse of that color in his later work (although there are certainly examples that betray no such trait). He was mockingly called the “Yellow Dwarf” and the Almanack of the Month offered a scathing caricature.
Satirical cartoon of J. M. W. Turner published in Almanack of the Month, June 1846
Desert
Any scenery that showed its dominance over man appealed to Turner. No doubt the scale and the bleak landscape of the desert, as well as the clarity of desert light, would have captivated our artist. Yet in his strictly European sketching trips, Turner was less adventurous than some contemporaries who ventured to the Holy Land and Africa, for example.
Natural Disasters
As a colleague says, “Here in Southern California, we don’t have weather, we have natural disasters.” Mr. Turner was certainly intrigued by the sheer power of rockslides, storms, and the like, often capturing the terrifying forces of nature in sketches and pushing the boundaries of their representation in his paintings.
Here in Los Angeles we live on the edge, and that’s exactly how the risk-taking Turner would have liked it.
Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, exhibited 1842, Joseph Mallord William Turner. Oil on canvas, 48 9/16 x 60 7/16 x 5 11/16 in. Tate: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856. Photo © Tate, London 2014
As immensely scenic as Southern California is (I’m a transplanted Londoner), I don’t believe Turner would have been enthralled with it; there’s little to no atmospheric weather conditions to experience apart from the marine layer wafting in at 4 & 5 o’clock in the a.m., if you live in one of the mega-expensive coastal cities. We basically enjoy crystal clear blue skies almost year around with seldom a nimbus on the horizon. Any serious student of Turner understands and appreciates that atmosphere played a critically central role in his paintings.
You’re absolutely right, of course, Kara! ‘Atmosphere is my style’ as the great man once said to Ruskin, and I should have mentioned it. I’m sure Turner would have lived in a coastal city for the subtle effects of light and atmosphere over the water. As you say, solid blue skies would have been of little interest to him. Thank you for reading, and for your comment. – Julian
think Santa Barbara sunrise or sunset w oil rigs
(Mr Getty vantage point) and Whalers. same great Yellows. Whale oil 1800’s/petroleum today. I think Turner would have capitalized on our brilliant sunshine☀️
Perhaps Turner would have felt more at home on the East Bay, where the skyscapes are more varied. Perhaps he could have pulled up a chair next to Richard Misrach at his house in the Berkeley Hills, where Misrach shot .
The sun is the lake of fire. Without faith you get what you believe. In this case abstract art
My genius ancestor ‘The Painter of Light’.