Turner & Rembrandt meet in Carlisle

Tullie House Art Gallery welcomes Turner & Rembrandt to centre stage in their new exhibition starting 19th October 2019.

Turner, Rembrandt meet in Carlisle

Both Turner and Rembrandt were geniuses, both ahead of their contemporaries, both true innovators who changed art forever. 2019 marks the 350th anniversary of the Rembrandt’s death.  Turner & Rembrandt ‘meet’ in Tullie Houses’ spacious gallery.

Turner: Northern Exposure

Turner: Northern Exposure is a set of three important new exhibitions of drawings, paintings and prints from the Turner Bequest at Tate.  The Northern exposure marks Turner’s Journey across the North and retraces Joseph Turner’s tour across the North of England. In 1797 Turner set off from London on his first tour of the North of England, to sketch in Northumberland, the Lake District and Yorkshire. He set out, at the age of 22, an architectural draftsman, intent on visiting the abbeys, castles and cathedrals of the North. He returned three months later a painter of the landscape sublime.

The Turner exhibition

The Turner: Northern Exposure exhibition is made up of 13 stunning colour studies and two of Turner’s sketchbooks that he carried on his Northern Tour. The Exhibition in Carlisle is supplementing the core works on loan with other works relating to Cumbria and the Lake District.

Turner & Rembrandt meet at Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery

Turner’s work shares centre stage’ with Rembrandt: Etchings from the British Museum, Tullie Houses’ commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the artists’ death.

Turner’s development as a master of landscapes

The exhibition at Tullie House includes some of the very first mountain-themed works that Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1798. These works are accompanied by later watercolours that reveal his development as a visionary painter of the sublime landscape. Artworks that you will only see in Carlisle include:

• Ullswater (1835) from The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere
• Windermere, Westmorland (c1835) from Manchester Art Gallery
• Ullswater Lake, from Gowbarrow Park, Cumberland (1815-18) and Whitehaven from Parton, Cumberland (1810-15) from The Whitworth, Manchester
• Ambleside Mill, Westmorland (exhibited 1798) from the University of Liverpool Art Gallery
• Buttermere Lake, with Part of Cromackwater, Cumberland, a Shower (exhibited 1798) from Tate

The Lake District in the gallery

The visitor can see the Lake District works close to the landscapes that inspired them. There are also highlights of Turner’s visits to Carlisle, which also became the subject for sketches, watercolours and engravings. Turner returned to Cumbrian themes repeatedly throughout his long career. Did Turner fall in love with the Lake District from his very first visit? Why not visit the exhibition and see if you too are inspired to visit the mountain landscape close by that mesmerised Turner. The dazzling masterpieces of light and colour from sketches made during his tours of the region are there for you to enjoy.

Rembrandt: Etchings from the British Museum

Melanie Gardner, Tullie House Curator, says “The British Museum holds one of the most important collections of Rembrandt’s prints and drawings in the world. It has been a privilege to be able to make this selection from it and to create this unique exhibition specifically for Tullie House.” Rembrandt’s work from the British Museum shares centre stage with Turner. The core of the exhibition is a loan of 12 Rembrandt etchings from the British Museum including The Omval (1645), several self-portraits including Rembrandt’s last etched image Rembrandt Self-Portrait Drawing at a Window (1648), and a 1631 portrait of the artist’s mother. Alongside the British Museum loans, the exhibition will also include 4 Rembrandt later impressions etchings held within the Tullie House collection. They came to the museum in 1949 as part of the significant bequest from Gordon and Emily Bottomley. The Tullie House Rembrandt’s include impressions of some of his most acclaimed etchings, Le Paysage aux Trois Arbres and The Three Crosses. These works have never been on public display at Tullie House before.

About Turner, Rembrandt meet in Carlisle

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), landscape painter and traveller, described as ‘the greatest of the age’ by art critic John Ruskin and consider by many to be the first ‘modern’ painter, is exhibited alongside Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606 – 1669), draughtsman, painter and printmaker, one of the most revered visual artists of all time. See the exhibition at Tullie House www.tulliehouse.co.uk/turner-northern-exposure