Late Turner: energy, experimentation and vision

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A contemporary dismissed Turner's late work as 'the folly and imbecility of old age' but a new show at Tate Britain reveals how wrong that judgement was

During Turner's lifetime (1775–1851) it was generally thought that senility began around the age of 60. Such thinking, perhaps, caused one critic, on seeing the 72- year-old Turner's paintings, to opine, 'This kind of painting is not the madness of genius. It is the folly and imbecility of old age'. This exhibition at Tate Britain sets out to challenge the myth, still encountered, that the elderly Turner was in decline over the last 15 years of his life.   

Beginning with work from 1835, the year when Turner turned 60, to that from 1850, when his last works were shown at the Royal Academy, the exhibition demonstrates how Turner's final period was in fact not a time of decline but one of energy, experimentation and vision. Bringing together 150 works from around the UK and abroad, Tate has assembled a cross-section of Turner's extraordinary body of work made during this period, when in fact some of his most celebrated paintings were created.

Many of the themes that occupied Turner in his earlier life continued into this final period. He kept up his interest in travel; in 1835, just as he turned 60, he undertook a challenging trip through Germany, Denmark, the Alps and the Italian Lakes, including a complex itinerary of cities as well as mountains and lakes. Venice still consumed his imagination; from 1840–6 he worked on 17 Venetian paintings. He also continued his commitment to the detailed observation of nature. His unique understanding and depiction of nature ensured that his subjects looked like nothing that had been painted before.

Historical themes that linked him to the culture of his era continue to invite the viewer to speculate on history and the moral issues flowing from it, in such works as Ancient Rome: Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus (1839).His exploration of the social, technological and scientific developments of modern life, such as his renowned work Rain, Steam and Speed (1844), demonstrate his engagement with contemporary life and issues. Turner's fascination with the sea continued to be reflected in his later works, involving a blend of modernity, myth, fact and fantasy, resulting in such works as Sunrise with Sea Monsters (1845). His interest in the whaling industry linked his love of the sea with modern technological developments, as in Whalers Boiling Blubber (1845).

From a technical point of view, Turner continued to experiment with a vast range of materials and techniques: oil paintings, drawings, prints, watercolours, the use of blue paper. Consciously working and re-working his techniques, he demonstrated an unfettered creativity where the actual technique could sometimes also be the meaning and message of the work.

Perhaps it is not surprising that the critics weren't able to keep up with him and found his works frequently incomprehensible; no one else was painting like this in the 1840s. It is difficult to know for certain if many of Turner's late experimental works are finished or unfinished, for example his set of a reworking in oils of subjects that had been originally published as prints in his Liber Studiorum.

Although prospective purchasers were sometimes put off buying Turner's works by the critics' reactions, Turner, as ever, had an eye on the market, and as well as experimental works he sought to appeal to old and new clients, bolstered by John Ruskin, who described him as 'the greatest of the age'.

A stunning feature of this exhibition is the display, a show within the show, of Turner's controversial square canvases, which are brought together and displayed in the same room for the first time. These were so misunderstood when they were first displayed that even Ruskin saw them as 'indicative of mental disease'. They were subjected to a hail of abuse in the press. Shaped canvases in which he particularly exploited shape and format, were a new development in Turner's work, showing that he continued to innovate in his later years. In Shade and Darkness and Light and Colour (both exhibited in 1843), it can be seen how Turner dramatically developed his use of the vortex, a characteristic that he continued to use in his later work. This group also includes some of Turner's most well-known paintings, such as Peace: Burial at Sea and War: The Exile and the Rock Limpet (both exhibited in 1842).

The examples gathered here from Turner's extraordinary output of his later years, when some of his best-known paintings were produced, challenge the myth of the elderly artist and enable a fresh assessment of his later works. The show presents a clear, compelling argument that he continued to be innovative, vigorous, bold and challenging across a variety of areas – a case supported by the sheer diversity and depth of the works displayed.