Two paintings by JMW Turner are to go on display in the UK for the first time in a century. The works have been hung at London's National Gallery for a special winter exhibition called Turner On Tour.
The Romantic artist, whose full name was Joseph Mallord William Turner, painted both Harbour Of Dieppe: Changement De Domicile and Cologne, The Arrival Of A Packet-Boat: Evening in the mid 1820s. They are being lent by The Frick Collection in New York.
Christine Riding, the Jacob Rothschild head of the curatorial department at the National Gallery, said: "I am absolutely delighted that these wonderful paintings by Turner, one of the best-loved artists in Britain, are going to be returning to the UK for the first time in more than 100 years and will be seen in Trafalgar Square, where they are sure to be hugely popular. The National Gallery was the home of the Turner Bequest so this is the perfect location for people to enjoy getting reacquainted with such masterpieces in person.”
The paintings were last seen in the UK in 1911. They were acquired by American industrialist Henry Clay Frick in 1914 and have remained in the US ever since.
Harbour Of Dieppe: Changement De Domicile and Cologne, The Arrival Of A Packet-Boat: Evening demonstrate Turner’s fascination with the subject of ports and harbours. The paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1825 and 1826 respectively and represent the outcome of Turner’s regular sketching tours around Europe that were central to his reputation as an artist-traveller.
Both the paintings demonstrate Turner’s approach to colour, light and brushwork. They also borrow the compositional format of the grand seaports of Claude Lorrain, as well as demonstrating the Claudian device of using light to create aerial perspective whereby the haze created by sunlight makes the objects in the distance lose their focus and local colour and merge with the sky.
National Gallery director Dr Gabriele Finaldi, said: “Turner’s glorious river and harbour scenes from the Frick Collection are, through a special set of circumstances, coming to London for an unprecedented showing at the National Gallery. I am enormously grateful to our friends at the Frick for sharing their masterpieces with us.”
Harbour Of Dieppe: Changement De Domicile and Cologne, The Arrival Of A Packet-Boat: Evening will both be on display as part of the Turner on Tour exhibition at the National Gallery between November 3 and February 19.
