Playing the game …

Barrie Sheppard provides a glimpse into the ‘strategic mind’ of the English artist, Joseph Mallord William Turner. Barrie writes: J. M. W. Turner applied for Associate membership of the Royal Academy in 1798 when he was just 24. He failed. However, he did succeed the following year. During the year between his failure and success he was not idle. Realising that success would depend on more than the talent displayed in the works he would submit for the 1799 exhibition, he set about cultivating the support of people influential in Royal Academy matters.

Academician Joseph Farington was such a person. He was an active member of the Academy, serving on a number of its committees. His diary, in which he recorded in great detail the London art scene over many years, including the workings of the Academy, was indicative of the extent of his involvement.

For his earlier 1798 application, Turner had successfully lobbied Farington who obliged by securing the votes of two academicians in support of Turner’s application. Turner had even gone as far to offer Farington the inducement of a picture that he would paint up from one of his sketches.

For his 1799 application, Turner again sought Farington’s support. With the value of his earlier inducement no doubt in mind, and to indicate the value of his paintings generally, he told Farington that the wealthy businessman and art collector, J J Angerstein, had offered him 40 pounds for his watercolour of Caernarvon Castle, a sum well above its asking price. Then, at a meeting with Farington and Farington’s fellow Academician, Robert Smirke, the offer of a painting was repeated. A gift was also offered to Smirke.

During that same year, Lord Elgin invited Turner to accompany him on his journey to Greece and Turkey. Turner’s role would be to make watercolour drawings of the landscape. However, believing that it was wise to be in London in the time leading up to the Academy election, Turner priced himself out of the excursion by demanding an excessive fee for his services.

For the Exhibition of 1799, for which his election as an Associate member of the R A would depend heavily, Turner submitted 11 works – four oils and seven water colours – works that demonstrated the wide range of his subject matter and the breadth of his painting techniques. One of the oils was the NGV’s Dunstanburgh Castle.

The tour d’force of his submissions, one that demonstrated his political acumen, was his The Battle of the Nile, at 10 o’clock when the L’Orient blew up, from the station of the Gun Boats between the Battery and Castle Aboukir (titles could be rather lengthy in those days).

The first thing to note about the painting is that it was a history painting, the most highly regarded of the painting genres. Second, it depicted a great decisive moment in the Battle of the Nile in which Nelson routed Napoleon’s fleet – a victory that stirred the patriotic feelings of the English people, including Academy members no doubt.  Other exhibitors submitted works on the same subject; however, they were of the battle more generally, not having the same dramatic punch and spectacle of Turner’s rendering of the single, decisive moment in the conflict.

The year 1799 was only the second year that contributors to RA exhibitions were permitted to append lines of poetry to their works, lines that were also printed in the catalogue. Turner seized the opportunity, apparently realizing that poetry would draw additional attention to the works to which they were attached, poetry being highly distinguished as a sister art equal to painting. He appended poetry to five of his works. To his Morning amongst the Coniston Fells he cited these lines from Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Turner, the astute, ambitious and politically aware young 24-year-old was the only candidate up for election as an Associate Member for the year 1799. He was successful. Three years later he was elected a full member.