The great English landscape painter Joseph Mallord William Turner, known rightfully as “the painter of light”, may just as well be called a painter of seascapes — so often did he return to the subjects of ships and the sea.
Turner portrayed the sea in all of its moods, but preferred his seas shaken and stirred, whether by riotous storms or the churning clashes of great warships.
Britain’s National Maritime Museum has amounted the first major exhibition devoted specifically to Turner’s marine paintings: Turner & the Sea.
There is a slideshow preview of works form the exhibition on the Telegraph. The museum has also produced a nicely animated promo video for the show, in which some of Turner’s paintings are digitally animated (see my recent post on Van Gogh Shadow).
For those, like myself, who would have to make an unlikely sea voyage themselves to attend the show in person, there is a book published to accompany the exhibition, Turner & the Sea.
In addition there are some high-resolution images of Turner’s works in general on the Google Art Project, some of which are also available in downloadable form on Wikimedia Commons, along with a range of smaller images.
Turner & the Sea is on view until 21 April 2014.
