Sunday, January 21, 2007

Ethereal Images



The water colours of Joseph Mallord William Turner in the Vaughn collection are only let out of storage every January. The rest of the time they are squirreled away to protect them from the damaging effects sunlight has on such delicate works.
They act as a counterpoint to the Canaletto's seen recently. Several of the works depict Venice. They are ethereal, half glimpsed silhouettes that loom out of the fog of memory. Whereas Canaletto is hard lines and detail, Turner is colour and light and imagery, half glimpsed and half remembered. I can't say I prefer them just that they speak to me in a different way.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Be careful corgi's bite, or is this a euphemism?