The day broke clear and sunny. Even though the temperature had not changed, with the drier air it felt ten degrees warmer. So my purchase of the long johns had an effect.
Anyone who knows me knows that sunny weather is my least favorite to photograph in. Or to be in, for that matter. Give me overcast, drizzle, atmospherics. Time, finally, for a museum. I’m glad I waited to see the Turner in Venice show at the Correr until I had a perspective of the city of my own. I looked at one sketch and thought, I know that spot. I set up my tripod in practically the same viewpoint.
Turner made three visits to Venice in his career, between 1819 and 1840. He spent only three weeks total here, but Venice was a touchstone for his entire artistic output. His sketchbooks show an unexpected deftness of draughtsmanship, the paintings the expected preponderance of light and color over all else (a cartoon from the time shows an artist at an easel, with a mop and a bucket of yellow paint. “Turner makes a painting,” reads the caption), but his watercolors were the gem of the show. You could see how he consistently contrasted a cool blue and a warm green as the opposing poles. Then there’d be a yellow and pink one. All were performed with a spontaneous gestured stroke that foreshadowed John Marin and the abstract expressionists of a century later.
Been enjoying your dispatches. Good to read about Turner. Interesting to hear about your pacing, and getting into the groove to take photographs. Thanks. -Martin
Posted by: Martin | January 16, 2005 at 11:57 AM