Exhibition | J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality
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J.M.W. Turner, Mer de Glace, in the Valley of Chamonix, 1803, watercolor, graphite, gum, scraping out and stopping out on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper mounted on thick, smooth wove paper (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, B1977.14.4650)
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Opening next month at the YCBA, which itself reopens after a two-year conservation project:
J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 29 March — 27 July 2025
Dordrechts Museum, Spring 2026
The year 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), possibly the most widely admired and influential British artist of all time.
Though Turner was trained within the English topographical tradition, his practice was deeply rooted in a wider European heritage of landscape painting. Turner pushed this inheritance to its limits in pursuit of his own expressive ends, astounding contemporaries with his bold and highly original compositions. His unique approach paved the way for a new form of landscape art, one that combined virtuoso brushwork with brilliant color, dazzling light effects, and an almost abstract sensibility. As a result, Turner came to be recognized as the most radical and innovative painter of his time and has continued to be so ever since.
This exhibition, the first show focused on Turner to be held at the Yale Center for British Art in more than thirty years, will showcase the museum’s rich holdings of the artist’s work. Unequaled in North America, this collection includes some of Turner’s most acclaimed oil paintings, notably his masterpiece Dort or Dordrecht: The Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed (1818) and his celebrated later painting Staffa, Fingal’s Cave (1831–32). Alongside these major works, the exhibition will also feature outstanding watercolors and prints from the YCBA’s collection, including the artist’s only complete sketchbook outside of the British Isles.
Turner’s works are akin to painted poems, filled with incident, anecdote, and symbolism. Conveying both the beauty and cruelty of nature and human life, they shed fascinating light on the artist’s world and reveal an aesthetic—and moral—complexity that is at once discomforting and strangely modern.
The exhibition is generously supported by the Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation.
From Yale UP:
Ian Warrell, with contributions by Gillian Forrester, Turner (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025), 144 pages, ISBN: 978-0300279719, $40.
This book, the inaugural installment in the Yale Center for British Art’s Collection Series, explores the museum’s astonishing Turner holdings—the largest outside the United Kingdom—in a manner that will engage the general reader and expert alike. Six sections of plates provide a comprehensive overview of the artist’s career, place the works within their historical and cultural context, and include new discoveries regarding the identification of locations, landscapes, and dates. Gillian Forrester’s supplementary essay offers a novel account of Turner’s innovative printmaking practice, illuminating his fraught collaborations with other printmakers. Complementing an exhibition at the YCBA and a satellite exhibition at the Dordrechts Museum (The Netherlands), both planned for the 250th year of Turner’s birth, this publication celebrates the artist’s unparalleled vision as exemplified in the YCBA’s world-class collection of his work.
Ian Warrell is an independent curator specializing in British art of the nineteenth century. Gillian Forrester is an independent curator specializing in British art from the eighteenth century to the present and former senior curator of prints and drawings at the Yale Center for British Art.
Turner 250
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J.M.W. Turner, The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, 1822–24, about 10 × 14 feet framed
(Greenwich: National Maritime Museum, BHC0565)
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Press release (21 January 2025) from Tate:
This morning, cultural institutions across Britain announced Turner 250, a year-long festival of special exhibitions and events. Taking place throughout 2025, the programme celebrates 250 years since the birth of renowned painter JMW Turner. Whether visiting museums and galleries or tuning in on TV and online, everyone will have the chance to enjoy Turner’s greatest works, learn about his incredible life and career, and discover the many ways he continues to inspire creativity today.
Born on 23 April 1775, Joseph Mallord William Turner is widely considered to be the greatest and most influential British artist of all time. From humble beginnings, he travelled the length and breadth of the country to capture its dramatic scenery, redefining landscape painting in the process. Today he remains a touchstone of British cultural life—the face on the £20 note—and the painter behind some of the most iconic images of the natural world ever created.
J.M.W. Turner, Self-Portrait, ca.1799, oil on canvas, 74 × 58 cm (London: Tate, Turner Bequest 1856, N00458).
This announcement includes over 30 projects taking place this year, organised by venues large and small as well as by national organisations such as Tate, the BBC, and Art UK. Turner exhibitions will be held in London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Norwich, Bath, and Sussex, highlighting key themes in his life and work and exploring his connections to other renowned historic figures like Jane Austen and John Constable. Turner’s legacy in modern and contemporary art will be celebrated with displays, commissions, and events in London and Margate, while the Turner Prize will be staged in Bradford as a highlight of the UK City of Culture programme. Books, films, and digital content will be released through the year, including a complete catalogue of Turner’s 37,500 sketches and watercolours on Tate’s website, a major new BBC documentary bringing the man and his art to life, and a screening of Mike Leigh’s award-winning film Mr. Turner at BFI Southbank. Talks and workshops will showcase new scholarship and ideas inspired by Turner, including an international conference at Tate Britain, a summit exploring art’s connection to the natural world at Turner Contemporary, and the Turner Society’s annual Kurt Pantzer memorial lecture. A keen international traveller, Turner will also have his 250th anniversary commemorated far beyond the UK, with celebratory shows being staged in Connecticut, Cincinnati, and Shanghai, as well as a special exhibition closer to home in Dublin.
Turner’s birthday on 23 April 2025 will be a particular highlight: the artists shortlisted for the Turner Prize will be announced that morning ahead of their show in Bradford in the autumn, an exhibition of Turner’s rarely-seen images of wildlife will open at Turner’s House in Twickenham, and a newly refreshed room will open in Tate Britain’s Clore Gallery, home to a permanent free display of 100 works by the artist.
Arts Minister Sir Chris Bryant said: “Turner was one of this country’s greatest artists. An innovator who created some of our best known canvasses, he reshaped British art. A talent of Turner’s stature requires a year of celebration, from the prize in his name to the back of the £20 note, his immense legacy continues to permeate through the arts and public life in Britain. The 250th anniversary of his birth will be an opportunity for the public to immerse themselves in our outstanding artistic heritage. I encourage everyone to take the time to find an event from the upcoming year to enjoy some of Britain’s finest artists from the past and present.”
Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate, said: “Turner is a standout figure in the story of British creativity. It is Tate’s privilege to care for the world’s biggest collection of his art and showcase it to the widest possible public. Over the course of this year, I’m delighted that we will be showing over 150 of his stunning works at Tate Britain as well as lending over 100 more to venues right across this country and beyond.”
Suzy Klein, Head of BBC Arts & Classical Music TV, said: “We’re thrilled to be working with Tate to celebrate Britain’s most celebrated artist and be granted unprecedented access to Turner’s vast collection of rarely seen sketches. I can’t wait to share this treasure trove with audiences, not only illuminating the workings of Turner’s unique creative mind but also offering an unprecedented view into the extraordinary era of change during his lifetime.”
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