Watercolours and the JMW Turner effect

JMW Turner revolutionised the use of watercolours as a painting medium through his career. The Royal Academy and other art circles in the late 18th century and before would never have considered watercolours in a similar league to oil paintings, yet Turner saw the distinct advantages that watercolours possessed. They gave artists like Turner the opportunity to add colour to quick sketches as well as being able to add other effects that would be impossible with oil works.

The Turner and the Sea exhibition towards the end gives examples of Turner's sketchbooks and his experiments with watercolours. This helps to show the changing effects of light and contrast that he was able to achieve. The Bell Rock Lighthouse (fig.1) watercolour gives this example perfectly. The painting gives the sea realism that equals any oil work and also gives an incredible lighting effect to the lighthouse and the sky surrounding it. Watercolours like this could also be painted much quicker than any oil painting which was exactly what artists like Turner and Clarkson Stanfield used on their sketching tours across Britain and Europe. They also were often used as precursors to much larger oil paintings, giving Turner the chance to experiment before producing the final copy for a patron.

Another example is a painting Turner did of Plymouth during one of his many sketching tours across Britian in 1825 (see fig.2). This time Turner adds a rainbow to the watercolour and the effect on the harbour gives a drama to the whole scene as the storm in the background passes. Obviously due the nature of oil works their value has always been very high in auction houses but Turner has started to help change this trend. In 2006 in fact a watercolour by Turner reached a record £5.8 million at Christie's (see this article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1520438/Turner-watercolour-fetches-record-5.8m.html). This has helped to elevate other artists watercolours which is great for private collectors as the value of watercolours they own are beginning to rise and also is a good time to invest in watercolours as their prices are steadily rising. You can still get many major maritime artist's watercolours for under £500 such as Charles Napier Hemy, Edward Duncan, E.W. Cooke, Henry Barlow Carter and Copley Fielding. They are definitely worth looking at as they will in time prove to be very good investments.

JMW Turner has had a lasting and continuing effect on watercolours and for this the art world will always be grateful. Maritime works in particular make the most of this technique which is why the Turner and the Sea exhibition gives a lot of attention to this art medium.

Figure 1. J.M.W Turner, The Bell Rock Lighthouse (1819), watercolour: 30.6 x 45.5 cm, Scottish National Gallery.

Figure 2. J.M.W. Turner, Plymouth with a Rainbow (c.1825), watercolour: 16.4 x24.7 cm, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian.