01 VII 2025 |
11. ‘England and Wales’ and Scotland 1826-38
435 - The Thames above Waterloo Bridge | |
![]() | ||
Datable for stylistic reasons to the early 1830s, it is just possible that this was projected as Turner's answer to Constable's picture of 'Waterloo Bridge from Whitehall Stairs, June 18th, 1817', exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832 (repr. Basil Taylor, Constable, 1973, pl.154). The effect of smoke-belching industry contrasts with the sparkling clear atmosphere of the Constable, and a large twin-funnelled steam-boat replaces the royal yacht. The possibility of Turner setting out to rival this particular Constable is reinforced by an incident during the 1832 Varnishing Days, when Turner's 'Helvoetsluys', a relatively subdued picture, was hung next to Constable's painting. This seemed, as C. R. Leslie relates, 'as if painted with liquid gold and silver', but Turner dealt with the competition by adding 'a round daub of red lead, somewhat bigger than a shilling, on his grey sea', later shaping it into a buoy. An image generated by an AI Machine Learning Model Property of the artist. | ||