J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free

This catalog of a fascinating traveling exhibition sets out to reexamine the "late works" as part of Joseph Mallord William Turner's (1775–1851) continuum of artistic development rather than an aberrant activity produced by age and illness. Essays by leading Turner scholars (and Tate British art curators) Blayney Brown and Amy Concannon and others dispel the long-held assumptions that the artist became more isolated from his own Victorian times. The works presented, a wealth of oils, drawings, and sketches, are visual proof of his engagement with his contemporary world, one that was transforming in many ways. These changes stimulated him to make new connections: his images altered as his surroundings did. It is too often a temptation to interpret the past in terms of the present, and this appears to be what has affected Turner scholarship for many years. The catalog entries offer a wealth of information interspersed with additional essays on such topics as Turner's travels, his formats, and his visions of sea and sky, all of which make this a splendid addition to the literature on the artist. Perhaps the most touching image is a metal paint box, which traveled with Turner everywhere and with which he was able to capture a world of his own, and now ours, forever.