With a faint greyish-blue background, a blot of indigo slightly left to the center, hues of umber on both sides extending toward the middle, a speck of animal-like silhouette, a tone of yellow, pale yet prominent, rendering above and below the indigo figure, Turner’s Norham Castle, Sunrise (c. 1845) manifests a subtle interplay of color and light. Among all the Romantic paintings displayed in the lecture slides, I found this artwork the most captivating.
Though details omitted, Norham Castle, Sunrise leaves a lucid, poetic impression on its viewers. The castle in the distance and a cow in the foreground dissolve into the soft yellow sunlight and the hazy atmosphere, diffusing an airy, impalpable quality. The distinction between the sky, the ground and the water are blurred, outlined only by smears of blue, brown and grey, yet the reflection of the castle and the cow has been unmistakably preserved, giving the scene a realistic aspect. Cold and warm hues are juxtaposed against one and another, complementing each other and creating a balanced color palette. I am utterly mesmerized by the artist’s skillful display of light — miraculously, with a few brushstrokes of yellow, sunrays appear to shine through the early morning fog, emanating an air of peace and serenity. The harmonic color scheme depicting the misty morning seems to be a visual symphony and reminds me of Lever du jour from Daphnis et Chloé by Ravel for their similar dream-like, tranquil sentiment.
Standing on the bank of the River Tweed, overlooking the border between England and Scotland, Norham Castle, after Turner’s first visit in 1797, has been portrayed once and again throughout his career, as if the scene has a mystic force educing a compulsive need of revisiting via paintbrush time after time. Norham Castle, Sunrise was his last work on the touchstone and was discovered along with several other pieces in Turner’s studio after his death as he seemed to have considered it an unfinished work. When first revealed, it received a harsh and contemptuous critique. His contemporaries described those works composed in similar manner as “mere botches; pieces of canvas with paint on them” and considered them to have been produced in a state of senile decrepitude. At the beginning of the twentieth century, ensuing the genesis of Impressionism, the significance of Turner’s later works was finally recognized. Henceforth, the period before Turner’s death has become the zenith of his career, and Norham Castle, Sunrise has become the emblem of Turner’s prophesizing ingenuity. Some regarded Turner as the forerunner of Impressionism and praised him for his avant-garde attempt to capture the aura of a landscape instead of its details. From condescension to exaltation, I find the sharp vicissitude both comic and satiric. The discrepancy between attitudes towards the same art piece evoked some doubts: Was Turner aiming at experimenting with color and light, or was the piece merely an unfinished draft? Is Norham Castle, Sunrise a gem in Turner’s Bequest or a disgrace in his career? Furthermore, is art objective or subjective?
Comparing Turner’s early and late depiction of Norham Castle, it is possible that the drastic difference ensued from health deterioration, specifically a blurred vision caused by cataract. However, new thoughts occurred as I studied further. After ferreting about for his compositions on the same subject, I laid the six artworks alongside in chronological order: Norham Village and Castle (c. 1797), Norham Castle: color study (c. 1798), Norham Castle (Liber Studiorum) 1816, Norham Castle on the River Tweed (c. 1824), Norham Castle at Sunrise (c. 1830), Norham Castle, Sunrise (c. 1845). The last two paintings stand out from the rest with their peculiar technique and manipulation of color, yet the two as well differ from each other. In contrast to the diluted hues, well-blended color borders and indistinct brushstrokes in Norham Castle, Sunrise (c. 1845), Norham Castle at Sunrise (c. 1830) seems to be the painter’s mindless doodle, displaying a vivid color scheme, clear borders of paint batches and solid brushstrokes. Though both stressing the ambiance of the landscape and excluding details, they are expressed through different manners. This serves as a shred of evidence for Turner’s experimental purpose.
From well-defined landscape paintings to pre-Impressionism sketchy works, Turner’s contemporaries disdainfully viewed his change in style as degeneration. Fifty years later, honor and reverence were bestowed on his late style. What makes an artwork a masterpiece, and what makes it ludicrous? There will never be an absolute answer, as appraisals of artists’ oeuvre only reflect contemporary taste; ergo art is, by this reasoning, collective subjective.
Remark
This short article was written in 2018 as a reflection upon lectures on Romanticism paintings.
