William
Turner - Grand-Palais Paris
Grand-Palais, until 24
may 2010
The poet John Ruskin enhanced Joseph Mallord William Turner
(1775-1851) during his lifetime. He qualified him
leader of the modern school. Later we saw in the intuitions of the
Impressionist painter, abstraction and even the action painting in the
making. The Grand Palais exhibition changes course by recalling first
of all it is no novelty without full knowledge of old masters.
Throughout his life, the English tried to penetrate their secrets. Not
by slavishly copying but component variations revealing their theme,
their light and their bill. Turner was a great traveler. Like
his predecessors, he carried his paintbox to Italy. Better than any
other he knew in his wonderful watercolors capture all the sublime and
the charm of landscapes. So in Wales at Naples or in the Alps.
But it was not always by mountains and seas. He spent hours in museums
(the Louvre) and explore the collections of masters. If proved below Titian, he
recoiled from the kind of portrait, he kept the chiaroscuro of
Rembrandt mystery forms. The Nordic inspired her sails and waves, the
unique charm of its rainy atmospheres. As Roman arcades, he withdrew
more than elegiac vision of antiquity as well as unpublished vaporous
atmospheres. It finally dipping his brush into the glitter of the
Venetian views by Canaletto that Turner was the best his thought: that
the world is never as real and intangible. The Grand Palace is low
here, the Turner in Venice, so revolutionary. Otherwise, the character proud,
romantic lover this extreme, this maestro fascinated by maelstroms
loved rupture with his peers. These games, and without many
concessions, although very fair-play - are not we in England? - Are
replenished. In Paris, the scenery is less impressive than at the Tate
in London,
where a first presentation showed the works side by side, as in the
days of shows. Here, they often face or are interrupted by the path.
Moreover, we never tired of admiring this painting dual, full of
challenges, finesse and daring. The evocation of this spirit of
competition, as we have seen recently in the Louvre exhibition on
Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto, dusts decidedly ancient art.
