Exhibition: Seeing the Light: Turner’s discovery of Italy in 1819

In the summer of 1819, the landscape artist J.M.W. Turner set off on a journey to Italy that would have a profound impact on his life and work. Visitors to Turner’s House this summer will be able to enjoy an exhibition of evocative watercolours capturing some of Turner’s first impressions of the place he was to later call the ‘land of all bliss’, and which provided inspiration for the rest of his career.

The French Revolutionary (1792-99) and Napoleonic Wars (1800-15) had thwarted Turner’s youthful ambitions to study the classical sites and old masters of Italy, and it was not until he was an established and experienced artist of 44 years of age that he embarked on a six month tour of Italy.

This exhibition at the house Turner designed for himself in Twickenham will chart some of his extensive preparations for what was still a potentially dangerous journey.

Seeing the Light represents an opportunity for the public to see some of Italy’s most well-known and loved sites – Venice, Rome, Naples - through Turner’s eyes, in the unique setting of his then rural retreat in Twickenham. Visitors to this tightly-focussed exhibition will also be able to appreciate Turner’s evolving use of colour and light before and after 1819, thanks to generous loans from Tate, the Guildhall Art Gallery and a private collection.