Turner in Indianapolis

Turner in Indianapolis is not a visual record of such a visit - the artist never traveled in America - but it does offer proof that Turner is very much present in the city today, represented by one of the largest holdings of his works outside his native country. Turner in Indianapolis is an authoritative catalogue of ninety-nine paintings and drawings by J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) and his contemporaries in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. All works are illustrated in color and are documented in individual entries that depend on current scholarship, pertinent historical records, and eyewitness testimony. This 280-page book also serves as a chronicle of Turner's life and times. It begins with his first exhibition piece, View of the Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth, shown at the Royal Academy when he was only 14 years old, and concludes with his last certifiable watercolor, Oberhofen, Lake Thun, painted in his seventy-third year. In between, the reader can follow Turner on most of his annual tours around England, throughout Great Britain, and across Europe in search of ever-grander landscape scenery. Where appropriate, Turner's engravings are illustrated, and interwoven throughout are watercolors and drawings by the artist's colleagues and competitors, including John Robert Cozens, Thomas Girtin, Thomas Hearne, Samuel Prout, Samuel Palmer, Clarkson Stanfield, David Roberts, and John Ruskin and his corps of Turner copyists. Also included is a transcription of the manuscript catalogue - unearthed by Kurt Pantzer - of the major collection of Turner drawings and watercolors assembled by Turner's friend Charles Stokes and bequeathed in 1853 to Hannah Cooper, who produced theinventory three year's later.