Turner's paintings and watercolours of Venice have long been celebrated as some of his most extraordinary creations.
Ever since he began to exhibit them in the 1830s, viewers have been captivated by the potency of his atmospheric visions of the once-great city. With the exception of Canaletto, few artists have responded with such intense imaginative inventiveness to the conjunction of water, light and architecture unique to Venice. Turner's three visits to Venice, over a period of two decades, put him at the forefront of a generation of artists who seized on the potential of Venice as a subject, an achievement highlighted by the inclusion of paintings by Richard Parkes Bonington, Samuel Prout and others.
The extent to which Venice's history shaped Turner's perception of the city is also examined, as are his interest in Venice's role in literature, from Shakespeare to Byron, and his reverence for the achievements of the great
artists of the Venetian School: Titian, Bellini and Canaletto. Despite their apparent familiarity, Turner's translucent paintings present intriguing questions that force the modern viewer to re-examine them both on their own terms, and as markers in the development of Turner's late style.
With the largest selection of Turner's paintings and watercolours of the City yet published, and contributions by Jan Morris, David Laven and Cecilia Powell, Turner and Venice is a testament both to
Turner's evocative images and to the iconic city that inspired them.