turner3The British landscapist J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) was highly unusual in that he responded to the works of the old Masters and his contemporaries throughout his lengthy career. Driven by a powerful ambition, he broadened his fields of investigation: topographic watercolours, seascapes, classical landscapes, fantastic landscapes, genre scenes and history paintings.

As Turner himself wished, the exhibition will compare one of his most complex masterpieces, The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire with two of Claude Lorrain’s magnificent visions which inspired it : Sunset at sea and Le Débarquement de Cléopâtre à Tarse.

By deliberately engaging with other painters, Turner developed his dazzling freedom to paint which reached its apogee in the last decade of his career. “Turner and the Masters” is an illustrated demonstration of the way Turner constructed his remarkable vision throughout his long career (a hundred paintings and graphic works from major British and American collections, the Louvre, the Prado and the Tate Britain).


Galeries Nationales Grand Palais
24 February - 24 May 2010
informations and tickets : www.rmn.fr