J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality

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.

Related Publications 

Turner, the inaugural installment in the YCBA’s Collection Series of illustrated books, explores the museum’s outstanding Turner holdings in a manner that engages the general reader and expert alike. 

Turner’s Last Sketchbook is a facsimile of the artist’s last known intact sketchbook, now in the YCBA collection. A poem by Tracey Emin (b. 1963) expressing her personal connection with Turner’s work accompanies this book. 

Brochures

View the children’s brochure and exhibition brochure. 

Related Programs 

Art in Context: J. M. W Turner’s Staffa, Fingal’s Cave: Painting the Energy Sublime
Caterina Franciosi, PhD candidate, the History of Art department, Yale University
Tuesday, April 15, 12:30–1 pm, Third-floor galleries

Exhibition Opening Lecture: Revealing J. M. W. Turner at the Yale Center for British Art
Wednesday, April 23, 5:30–6:30 pm, Lecture Hall and Livestream

The Sublime in Art and Music: Tim Barringer and the Brentano String Quartet
Thursday, May 1, 5:30–6:30 pm, Lecture Hall

Symposium: Turner Today
Friday, May 9, 10:15 am – 3:30 pm, Lecture Hall and Livestream

Create Community: Turner’s Vision with Watercolor
Thursdays, May 15, May 22, and June 12, 6–7:30 pm, Docent Room

Art in Context: Staffa, the “Indistinct”  
Jessikah Díaz, PhD candidate in English, Yale University
Tuesday, June 3, 2025, 12:30–1 pm, Third-floor galleries

The Art of Verse: Turner and Poetry
Thursday, June 12, 5:30 pm, Third-floor galleries 

Teen Thursday: Print, Press, Stamp!
Thursday, June 26, 6–8 pm, Docent Room

Art in Context: “Swimming with Turner”
Steve Mentz, professor of English, St. John’s University, New York City
Tuesday, July 15, 12:30–1 pm, Third-floor galleries

Top image

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Mer de Glace, in the Valley of Chamonix, Switzerland, 1803, watercolor, graphite, and gum on paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection