Rhodes

Rhodes

J. M. W. Turner, between 1823 and 1824

Download4000 × 2369 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: J. M. W. Turner (British, 1775–1851)
Medium: Watercolor, gouache, and scraping out on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Size: Sheet: 5 1/4 x 8 7/8in. (13.3 x 22.5cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Book illustration was another prolific strand of Turner’s practice. During the 1830s, he was especially active creating illustrations for the works of a number of celebrated authors, including Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron. This view of the Mediterranean island of Rhodes was commissioned to illustrate a popular edition of Byron’s Life and Works (1832–34).

It typifies the small-scale images the artist produced to meet the needs of this market. As with his earlier Vesuvius, Turner had never visited the scene, instead relying on a sketch by another artist. In spite of this, his powerful imaginative and technical abilities endowed this work with a vividness of coloring and strength of form that are difficult to reconcile with its derivative nature.

Text: Yale Center for British Art.

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