TurnerThe innocence of the eye As a blind person would see the world if the gift of sight suddenly returned - so might one describe the effect of Turner's paintings on the observer. John Ruskin, the uncompromising nineteenth-century defender of the painting of William Turner (1775-1851) spoke of the 'innocence of the eye', which perceived the colours and forms of the world before it recognized their significance. But in order to develop such a style, Turner first had to overcome the entire legacy of late rococo academic teachings. He was simultaneously a romantic and a realist - and yet he was neither. His landscapes, far in advance of their time, have been called forerunners of Impressionism, but they also possess traits that influenced Expressionism, and many of his late compositions are thoroughly surrealistic. In reality, Turner's art cannot be comprehended by such classifications: its essence remains a riddle to art history even today. For his work arises from a unique relation to the nature that it depicts: through his brilliant sketches, he found his way already in the 19th century to a rigorously open kind of painting in which nature sets free the use of colour. And through the workings of the natural elements - especially atmospheric light - Turner confronted nature at the point where nature itself is an image. This book provides the understandings necessary to open up Turner's paintings for the eye, demonstrating that Turner was not simply illustrating nature, but that his pictures speak directly to the eye as nature does itself - through a world of light and colour. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:
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appear artist atmosphere background becomes blue boats body colour bridge bright brightened British Museum brushstrokes Caspar David Friedrich centre Claude Lorrain clouds cm London Colour Beginning completely conception context contrast create dark area Deluge depicted Detail drawing edge effect elements entire event example exhibition experience Fighting Téméraire figures foreground Goethe Gottfried Boehm illus ILLUSTRATION impression interpretation J.M.W.Turner landscape later pictures Light and Colour light-and-dark manifestation manner Mark Rothko means motifs movement National Gallery nature objects observer observer's gaze Oil on canvas oil paintings one's gaze outlines painter Paul Mellon Pencil perspective Petworth picted pictorial form picture's portrayal portrayed possible reality reflections Regulus representation reveals right-hand Royal Academy Ruskin scene seen ships sketchbook sketches Snow Storm spatial structure studies style of painting sunset surface Tate Gallery Theory of Colours tion Turner Turner's later Venice Watercolour Wilton yellow