Spall went to great lengths to get his drawing and painting right, and sort of succeeds. He misses the crucial point, though: that Turner was a miniaturist by temperament. He made innumerable watercolours on a tiny scale, compressing astonishing amounts of topographical and atmospheric detail into them, and the sketchbooks he took with him on tours usually function in the same way. If you look closely at his oil paintings, you find them equally detailed. The current Late Turner show at the Tate in London provides plenty of opportunity for this, though, by omitting the small-scale works, it tends to stress the breadth rather than the precision. But there are watercolours of Lake Lucerne or Venice that illustrate the delicacy and subtlety of his observation. Likewise with the oils: examine his famous steamer in a snowstorm, and you will find it is painted with minute care in every part. There is fine draughtsmanship in the windlashed sea itself. You understand why Turner was infuriated when critics called it “soapsuds and whitewash”.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 12:59:48 +0000
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