JMW Turner (1775-1851) A Shipwreck off Hastings, c.1825 Photo © National Gallery of Ireland. (Click on image to enlarge).
ONE of the pleasures of Ireland in January is the annual exhibition of Turner watercolours at the National Gallery in Dublin. This years show includes the entire Vaughan bequest and five other watercolours acquired in recent years. In 1900 the Irish gallery accepted a bequest of 31 drawings and watercolours by J M W Turner (1775–1851). The London art collector Henry Vaughan stipulated that the works would be displayed only in January when natural light levels are at their lowest. The annual show has become one of the major attractions in the gallery’s exhibition calendar.
This year a new catalogue ‘The Works of JMW Turner at the National Gallery of Ireland’ by the curators Anne Hodge and Niamh MacNally is published with the support of Unicredit Bank Ireland plc. Another Turner watercolour January exhibition from the Vaughan bequest takes place each year at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.
Among the greatest of British artists,Turner was a master of watercolours and created amazing landscapes, seascapes and topographical views. Vaughan acquired examples from every period of Turner’s long career.