From New Year’s Day National Galleries of Scotland celebrates the 250th birthday of artist, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), with a special exhibition.
Visitors to the Turner in January exhibition will have the opportunity to see a new selection of over 30 watercolours that have never been seen before in Scotland, in an exchange with the National Gallery of Ireland.
Turner in January: Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest, opens at the Royal Scottish Academy building in Edinburgh at midday on 1 January 2025. The free exhibition includes a watercolour of Edinburgh from 1801 that has never been displayed in the city before.
This once in a lifetime exhibition is a celebratory take on a keenly awaited and much-loved annual tradition that has been taking place since 1901.
Renowned art collector Henry Vaughan owned over 200 drawings, watercolours and prints by Turner, which he divided in his will between galleries in Edinburgh, Dublin and London.
And 38 of these watercolours were given to the people of Scotland, on the condition that they are only
displayed in the month of January, when light levels are at their lowest.
This means that these works still possess a freshness and an intensity of colour, almost 200 years since
they were created.
Now, in an exciting exchange, simultaneous exhibitions will see Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest make a special trip to the National Galleries of Scotland, while Scotland’s Vaughan Bequest will go on display at the National Gallery of Ireland. Those familiar with
Turner in January are sure to notice how both collections complement each other.
Visitors will be able to marvel in sweeping seascapes, dramatic landscapes and spectacular cities.
The most famous British artist of the 19th Century, Turner’s career spanned over 50 years.
He experimented constantly with technique and colour, creating landscapes that still
astonish today. In his younger years Turner toured Britain extensively, as war made travel
to Europe impossible. He first travelled abroad in 1802 and from 1819 onwards he
undertook sketching tours abroad almost every year, visiting France, Belgium, Germany,
Italy, Austria and Switzerland.
The panoramic Edinburgh from below Arthur’s Seat (1801) will be on display in the city it
depicts for the first time. A moody view of Auld Reekie captured on Turner’s first visit to
Edinburgh in the summer of 1801, dark storm clouds loom over Edinburgh Castle, rain
pouring on the horizon as cows drink peacefully in the foreground.
When Turner first visited the Alps in 1802, the trip transformed his understanding of
landscape, which was reflected in his boundary-pushing depiction of the mountains, rocks
and glaciers. In The Great Fall of the Reichenbach, Switzerland (1802), Turner
emphasises the sublime drama and majestic height of the 200-hundred-foot waterfall by
including a tiny, ant-like figure on a rocky outcrop to indicate scale.
Both the Scottish and Irish Vaughan Bequests include expressive watercolours painted on Turner’s visit to the
Aosta valley in the Alps in 1836, where the artist uses a great variety of watercolour
techniques – scratching out, sponging out and working freely in wet watercolour – to
depict his beloved mountains.
Venice, city of light and water, held a special fascination for Turner. His third and final visit
was in August 1840, when the stormy summer weather inspired a series of tempestuous
watercolours recording dramatic atmospheric effects around the city. Storm at the Mouth
of the Grand Canal (1840) comes to Edinburgh from Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest. Also on
exhibition will be The Doge’s Palace and Piazzetta, Venice (1840), a golden evening view
of gondolas and fishing boats clustered against the backdrop of Venice’s most celebrated
buildings.
Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest includes outstanding examples of watercolours created to be
engraved and published as a print series. A highlight of the exhibition will be A Ship
against the Mewstone, at the Entrance to Plymouth Sound (c.1814), from Picturesque
Views on the Southern Coast of England.
A Royal Navy ship is shown labouring in heavy swell at a notorious danger point on the Devon coast. In this series, Turner aimed to
record the landscape and working lives of places and people living along the south coast.
In Clovelly Bay, North Devon (c.1822), another jewel-like watercolour from the same
series, he shows in great detail the work of quarrying limestone. Also on show will be A
Shipwreck off Hastings (c.1825), which was probably produced for Turner’s Ports of
England print series.
Turner in January: Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest truly is a first for Scotland, with most
displayed in their original frames and even Henry Vaughan’s original display cabinet.
Charlotte Topsfield, exhibition curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, said:
“Exchanging Vaughan Bequest Turners is an idea that Edinburgh and Dublin have been
discussing for a long time. We are so excited to be working together on this historic
swap in Turner’s anniversary year. It will be such a marvelous celebration for the people
of Scotland to enjoy – a real once in a lifetime opportunity to commemorate a very
special painter.”
Anne Hodge, exhibition curator at the National Gallery of Ireland said: “I am
delighted that in January 2025 visitors to the National Galleries Scotland will be able to
see Turner’s wonderfully expressive vision of a rainy Edinburgh along with all 31
watercolours that Henry Vaughan decided to leave to Dublin. It is a great privilege for
me to have worked so closely with colleagues in Edinburgh to make this project a
reality.”
Turner in January: Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest opens at the Royal Scottish Academy
building at 12pm on 1 January and is free to visit.
This exhibition has been created in partnership with the National Gallery of Ireland. It is
supported thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery and Sir Ewan and Lady
Christine Brown.
Pic Neil Hanna
Pic Neil Hanna
Pic Neil Hanna
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
