J.M.W. Turner : Romantic Painter of the Industrial Revolution

by William S. Rodner

University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles;
London, 1998. (222 + xiv) pp., 8 color plates and 61 b/w illustrations, $45.00 (£35.00). ISBN: 0-520-20479-4.

Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold

In June of 1842, John Ruskin (1819-1900), art critic and universal commentator on morals and taste, started an ambitious work with a monumental title, "Modern Painters: their superiority in the art of landscape painting to all the ancient masters proved by examples of the true, the beautiful and the intellectual, from the works of modern artists, especially from those of J.M.W. Turner Esq., R.A." The first volume appeared in 1843 and Ruskin's goal was to rescue Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) from neglect and obscurity. The English artist was a touch embarrassed by the effusive praise, but it did change the critical tide and established Turner as one of the great masters of watercolor and of landscape art. The acclaim continues to the present and has been captured in several books including the latest by William Rodner, an historian at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.

The qualifier "Romantic Painter of the Industrial Revolution," is an eye catcher and the reader anticipates a new interpretation, or at least emphasis by Dr. Rodner, on the selection and rendition of motif and landscape by Turner. The Industrial Revolution, which dated from about 1760 in England and gradually spread to other European countries, concerned the replacement of hand tools with machines and of horses and sails by steam engines. There was considerable opposition to the trend because of well-placed fears of increased dangers to the health and welfare of workers and travelers, and Rodner addresses these items. Another contribution is the coverage of other British artists that were contemporaries of J.M.W. Turner; some of these will be new names for most readers.

Turner observed these innovations and developments along with all his countrymen but seems to have been the first to elevate steam trains and ships to subjects for artistic glorification. Rodner documents the paintings but one waits unfulfilled for some sociological insight into what, if anything beyond intelligent observation, was driving Turner. Likewise the influence of Turner on the impressionists is given only passing reference. One might reasonably have expected a critical comparison of Turner's "Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway, 1844, with, for example, Monet's "Arrival of the Normandy Train at the Gare Saint-Lazare," thirty three years later. William Rodner has constructed a visually attractive dissertation on J.M.W. Turner and the Industrial Revolution, but his anticlimactic conclusion is that the artist, "limited his role as critic to a cautionary note on human aspiration, without expressing any explicit social concern."

The book is generally well produced. Reference material is assembled at the end: 34 pages for notes, 8 for a selected bibliography, and then an adequate index of 12 pages. There are many illustrations, but given the price and type of book the number in color is modest. The positioning of illustrations close to the relevant text is not always observed and, worst of all, the eight color plates are ganged together in the center of the volume. Given the high quality of paper used throughout it is difficult to excuse this unfortunate habit. Surely it is a throwback to older struggles in composition that are now overcome by modern computer-assisted techniques in the publishing industry.