Although the National Gallery of Ireland's collection of Turner watercolours is always on display in January, this year marks the centenary of the pictures' bequest. They were given to the gallery by Henry Vaughan (1809-1899), who had devoted much of his life to the study and collection of fine art, particularly old master drawings and Turner watercolours.
On his death, Vaughan left work by Turner to a number of institutions, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum and the National Gallery of Scotland. The National Gallery of Ireland was given 31 of the 35 Turner watercolours now in its collection; these represent the artist at every stage in his career, from early landscape sketches such as that showing Lake Lucerne to such vivid pieces of work as Sunset over Petworth Park, painted while Turner was staying with his patron Lord Egremont around 1827.
Also included in the exhibition are scenic views of the Alps and Venice, both of which held a life-long fascination for the English artist. The majority of his 170-odd Venetian watercolours now belong to London's Tate Gallery but four are in the National Gallery of Ireland collection.
These were painted either during or soon after his visits to the city in 1819 and 1840. He would have known of Venice already from Canaletto's street scenes, which were popular with English Grand Tourists during the 18th century, but Turner presents a very different, less sunny city to that seen by the Italian artist.
Equally attractive as subjects to Turner were coastal and seascapes, featured here by, among others, Shakespeare's Cliff, Dover, dating from 1794-97, and Clovelly Bay, Devon, which was painted more than 25 years later; falling into the same category also are Fishing Boats on Folkestone Beach and A Shipwreck off Hastings.
In addition, the current exhibition offers a selection of prints from the artist's Liber Studiorum, of which the gallery possesses a complete set. These prints were conceived by Turner to increase public appreciation of the art of landscape, as well as demonstrating his own abilities in this genre. Although he originally planned to produce 100 prints in sets of five twice annually for 10 years, eventually only 71 plates were issued.
Henry Vaughan was conscious of the damage strong light can do to watercolours and he therefore stipulated in his bequest that the works from his collection were only to be displayed during the month of January when light levels are at their lowest. As usual, therefore, this exhibition will close at the end of the present month. There are free guided tours of the paintings every Wednesday at 3 p.m. and the gallery also holds a lecture series focusing on various aspects of Turner and his art.
