‘JMW Turner and changing visions of landscape’ – Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery

Opening to the public on Saturday 19 October 2024 at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, JMW Turner and changing visions of landscape places the work of arguably the world’s most famous landscape artist at the heart of an exhibition which traces the evolution of landscape art before and after this pivotal figure.

On display until 23 February 2025, the exhibition at Norwich Castle kick starts celebrations for the 250^th anniversary of Turner’s birth in 1775.

Featuring seven oil paintings by Turner alongside a further nine of his works on paper, Turner’s visionary approach is compared and contrasted with works by many other important artists – from those who influenced Turner such as Claude Lorrain and Canaletto through great contemporaries like John Constable and John Sell Cotman to those he influenced in turn such as John Ruskin and Philip Wilson Steer.

Works by twentieth century artists including Paul Nash and Mary Newcomb show how very different kinds of artists have continued to engage with the tradition of landscape painting. Contemporary works by Ibrahim Mahama, Frances Kearney, Jermaine Francis and Henna Nadeem, among many others, bring the story up to date, demonstrating the continuing relevance of landscape in art.

In an exciting first, the exhibition brings together four of Turner’s paintings of the Bridges at Walton on the River Thames – from Norwich Castle, Tate, and a private collection. Painted between 1805 and the 1840s, each painting gives a completely different character to this one location and provides a brilliant springboard for exploring Turner’s ground-breaking approach to landscape and how this evolved over time.

With loans from the Royal Academy of Arts, The National Trust, the Tate, Dulwich Picture Gallery, and from private collections and displaying works seldom ever seen in public, the exhibition is a fitting celebration of the acquisition of Turner’s 1805/06 version of ‘Walton Bridges’ by Norfolk Museums Service in 2019 following a successful fundraising campaign to save the painting for the nation. Supported by major grants of £2.1m from National Lottery players through The National Lottery Heritage Fund and from Art Fund, the acquisition was the first oil painting by Turner to enter a public collection in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.

In total over 70 works by more than 40 artists are on display in the exhibition which is generously supported by the East Anglia Art Fund and WSP. The exhibition is accompanied by a full colour catalogue.

Exhibition Information

JMW Turner and changing visions of landscape
The exhibition is on show at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery from 19 October 2024 – 23 February 2025.

Exhibition free with general admission. For further information and to book tickets visit: norwichcastle.norfolk.gov.uk

A full events programme will accompany the exhibition.

Exhibition catalogue: 96pp, ISBN 978-0-85101-705-1

Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Castle Hill, Norwich, NR1 3JU

JMW Turner (1775-1851), Walton Bridges, c1806, Oil on canvas, Norfolk Museums Service