Turner Abroad : France Italy Germany Switzerland

Andrew Wilton

Published by Britisch Museum, hardcover with dustjacket, illustrated

France Italy Germany Switzerland
Turner's travels in Europe were among his most prized pleasures. Not only did they stimulate his genius to produce hundreds of superb sketches and watercolours, but he thoroughly enjoyed the actual experience of travelling through Europe.

Between 1817 and 1845 he made eighteen journeys, taking him as far afield as Naples, Berlin, Vienna and Prague. He was not only the greatest of the tourist topographers, but sought to convey in his art a deeper understanding of the complexity of European life and thought, of which he felt very much a part.

The 128 colour plates in this book have been carefully chosen from the immense holdings of the British Museum, which include the artist's bequest of sketchbooks and studies. They represent the whole range of Turner's European work, from the pencil and chalk sketches of 1802 to the masterly Swiss watercolours of the 1840s and the brilliant studies for them (which have never been brought together in such quantity before). Many familiar favourites are here, but also numerous equally splendid works which are reproduced for the first time. The colour reproductions are to the highest standard, having been compared at every stage with the original drawings.

In his introduction Andrew Wilton studies Turner's special affinity with the Continent and places this in the context of the relationship between England and Europe in the early nineteenth century. He also provides notes on each plate and a chronology of Turner's travels.

128 colour and 25 black-and-white illustrations