Explorations in the footsteps of Turner, Cotman, Ruskin and others with Professor David Hill
On 27 February 2015 I announced that the Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation had commissioned a SublimeSites exploration of Turner’s associations with Heidelberg. I promised to visit the site in May but then remembered that Cecilia Powell had discovered in Turner and Germany (1995, p.74) the actual dates on which Turner stayed in Heidelberg in 1844; … Continue reading In Turner’s Footsteps at Heidelberg: Part 1
I am fortunate to have been appointed to work through the whole collection of over eight hundred drawings by Cotman at Leeds Art Gallery. This will be a three-year project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation culminating in 2017-18 in an online catalogue and an exhibition. The Leeds Collection of Cotman comprises principally of a … Continue reading The Leeds Cotman Project: #1: A Study of Turner’s ‘Helvoetsluis’ at the R.A., 1832
Thanks to the support of the Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation I was able to make a site visit to Rome 10-14 April 2015. This was to visit the exact viewpoint of Turner's painting of Rome from Mount Aventine that was sold at Sotheby's in London in December 2014 for a record £30.3m. It is a … Continue reading Rome Revisited
This article is the third to explore Turner’s Sisteron subjects in the light of my recent visit to the site. Here I focus on a watercolour in the collection of the Museum of Rhode Island School of Design that records the view of the Pont du Buech from the west. The bridge spans the river … Continue reading Turner at Sisteron: The Pont du Buech, looking west
My friends tell me that it’s not real work, not proper research; all this trotting off to places Turner might have been. It’s a bit like Richard Long expecting to make a living out of walking and camping holidays. My unappreciative chums may have a point, but I want to argue here that ‘real’ work … Continue reading Truanting with Turner: Dallam Tower and the Kent Estuary at Milnthorpe, Cumbria
