News - Turner in January

The annual exhibition of JMW Turner sketches and watercolours is now on at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Here's a short video produced by the Gallery explaining more about Turner and Scotland...

Henry Vaughan was a distinguished and generous Victorian collector of art, who had inherited a fortune from his father, a wealthy hat maker. Vaughan met JMW Turner in the 1840s and built a collection of the artist’s drawings and watercolours which spanned his entire career. Inspired by John Ruskin to bequeath artworks to public collections, Vaughan gave pieces to a number of museums and galleries across Britain, including the National Galleries of Scotland. Aware of the importance of conserving watercolours, which easily fade if over-exposed to light, he stipulated that the watercolours be ‘exhibited to the public all at one time free of charge during the month of January’. At all other times they were to be kept in a special cabinet in the Print Room.

In this video from a few years back, Charlotte Topsfield, Senior Curator of British Drawings and Prints at the Scottish National Gallery, discusses the work of JMW Turner and his connections to Scotland.



Turner in January is on until Fri 31 Jan 2020 at the National Gallery of Scotland. Open daily, 10am-5pm. Thursdays until 7pm. Admission to the exhibition is free. Find out more here.
Image Title: Sea View
Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner
Gallery: Scottish National Gallery(On Display)
Object type: Work on paper
Subject: The sea
Materials: Bodycolour on blue paper
Date created: About 1826
Measurements: 13.50 x 19.00 cm
Credit line: Henry Vaughan Bequest 1900