Recent Events

The 41st Kurt Pantzer Memorial Lecture by Professor Stephen Bann. This lecture will examine diverse series from the Southern Coast (1816–24) to the Rivers of France in the mid-1830s, and will argue that Turner’s engagement in the production of such serial publications also helped to provide him with a specific sense of mission which was ultimately fulfilled in some of his major artistic achievements.

The Annual General Meeting of the Turner Society will take the form of an online meeting.

The visit to the ‘Turner’s Modern World’ exhibition will be replaced by an online talk by the curators together with a question and answer session, arranged specially for the Society on the date of the cancelled visit.

Talk by Cecilia Powell. Although Turner is rightly acclaimed for his originality, we should not forget that his work was grounded in his admiration for the art of the past, where a major role was often played by mythology.

A reception to mark the issue in February of the new £20 note featuring Turner. Senior officers of the Bank will talk about the process of selection and design leading to the new banknote and Pieter van der Merwe, Chairman of the Turner Society and a maritime historian, will discuss The Fighting Temeraire which is depicted on the note.

Our former Chairman Andrew Wilton will speak about the genesis of his recently published Turnerian novel The Painter’s Boy: An Historical Caprice.

Talk by Colin Harrison

To celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of John Ruskin on 8 February 1819, Colin Harrison, Senior Curator of European Art in the Department of Western Art, will introduce a selection of the Turner watercolours presented by Ruskin to his old university, together with other watercolours which formed part of the Teaching Collection in the Ruskin School of Drawing.

The Society will make a return visit to Petworth House for a tour guided by its Collections Manager, Andrew Loukes. After picnicking or lunching at Petworth, we shall also visit Fittleworth Mill from 2.30 p.m., where we shall be shown round by a member of the owner’s family and be served light refreshments.

Lecture by Nicola Moorby

2019 marks two hundred years since one of Turner’s most significant European expeditions, his first tour of Italy, an experience which both consolidated and expanded his landscape vision. Drawing upon recent cataloguing of the Italian sketchbooks, this talk will discuss his approach to Italy’s treasures and traditions and examine how he assimilated that material within his wider practice.

Talk by Nick Reese

Following last year’s highly successful talk on the West Country drawings, Nick Reese examines Turner’s drawings made in and around Petworth and Fittleworth, destinations which the Society is to visit in June.