Late Turner: impressed by explosions of colour and texture at Tate Britain

Perhaps it was good to be primed by the movie, which I thought was disappointing. I was hoping that Turner's real art might be different and this time I was truly impressed. Tate Britain had expertly curated 6 large rooms of his late works; painted between 1835-1851. It was a visually and emotionally stunning array of large mounted watercolours, complemented by many quick drawings on paper. It was difficult to imagine an established artist in his 60's and 70's creating these controversial masterpieces, although in retrospect it is clear that he broke with tradition, and was therefore misunderstood at the time.

Each room was visually stunning and closer inspection of many pieces revealed Turner's multiple talents. He was able to combine palettes of blue-brown-cream oceans or landscape combinations as creatively as orange-gold-pink sunsets. Generally, he overshadows individuals and small villages with enormous skies; some convey idealistic and romantic sunsets while others are in the eye of a storm or in the midst of steam or fog; and there is often a hidden light shining through. In many pictures he skilfully draws in foreground and middle ground scenes, and many are partially obscured, as if looking through a window. I particularly liked his delicate scenes of European mountains, valleys and lakes, and rather dismissed his chintzy reproductions of the great mythical narratives.

It was also clear that, as a wealthy English artist and businessman, he had the means to travel to Europe and convey the grandeur of cities such as Venice, alongside Swiss mountains and lakes. He perpetuated the romance and enigma of the continent, with his tonal pallets of translucent watercolours. He also relished the opportunities to convey the colour and energy of real fires in the Tower of London and Houses of Parliament!