Ian Warrell – författare

J.M.W. Turner is one of the most influential and important British artists of all time. His watercolours, with their extraordinary effects of shifting light and dramatic cloudscapes, are especially highly regarded. This book reveals the secrets of his technique for the first time, allowing watercolourists to try them out for themselves.For the first time, this book reveals the secrets of Turner's technique, allowing present-day watercolourists to try them out themselves. There is an accessible introduction that explores Turner's life and career and the materials he used to achieve the masterpieces we know and love today. The book then goes on to list the modern materials the twenty-first century watercolourist will need if they aspire to take on similar subject matter. Successive chapters look at a particular theme, such as Sky, Water, Trees, Buildings, People, Animals, Sunrise, Moonlight and Fire, illustrating each with one of Turner's works. Expert contemporary watercolour artists then explain, step-by-step, how to paint a version of that particular picture and how to use the techniques learnt to paint other compositions. With a glossary of technical terms, high quality colour reproductions and backed by the authority of Tate, the world centre for Turner scholarship, this is a must-buy purchase for all lovers of J.M.W. Turner and of watercolour painting.

An engaging look at one of the central motifs in the work of the great 19th-century painterWidely considered Britain’s greatest painter, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) is best known for his light-filled landscapes and seascapes. A relentless traveler, Turner often turned his artistic attention to the theme of modern and ancient ports. In the mid-1820s, Turner exhibited two monumental, and controversial, paintings of ports: Cologne and Dieppe. Shocking for their intense luminosity and yellow tonality, as well as for Turner’s unorthodox handling of paint, these works marked a transition in the artist’s career as he moved away from naturalism and toward a new, poetic topography.  This in-depth study of these two seminal paintings also addresses a wide selection of Turner’s works in both oil and watercolor from the 1820s, placing them in the context of radical changes in British social and economic structures taking place at the time. Drawing from period travel accounts, contemporary critical commentary, and new technical analyses of Turner’s work, this magnificently illustrated book brings a fresh, new perspective to the pivotal middle years of Turner’s career.  Published in association with The Frick CollectionExhibition Schedule:The Frick Collection, New York(02/22/17– 05/14/17)

An engaging account of Britain’s greatest painter, told through works from the Yale Center for British Art’s extensive collection Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) is one of the most recognizable names in the history of British art. Elected to the Royal Academy in 1802, Turner broke new ground with his oils, watercolors, and prints. His landscapes and marine paintings are widely considered the crowning achievement of British Romantic art. This book, the inaugural installment in the Yale Center for British Art’s Collection Series, explores the museum’s astonishing Turner holdings—the largest outside the United Kingdom—in a manner that will engage the general reader and expert alike. Six sections of plates provide a comprehensive overview of the artist’s career, place the works within their historical and cultural context, and include new discoveries regarding the identification of locations, landscapes, and dates. Gillian Forrester’s supplementary essay offers a novel account of Turner’s innovative printmaking practice, illuminating his fraught collaborations with other printmakers. Complementing an exhibition at the YCBA and a satellite exhibition at the Dordrechts Museum (The Netherlands), both planned for the 250th year of Turner’s birth, this publication celebrates the artist’s unparalleled vision as exemplified in the YCBA’s world-class collection of his work.Published by the Yale Center for British Art/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: Yale Center for British Art(March 29, 2025–July 27, 2025) Dordrechts Museum(Spring 2026)

Curated and introduced by Ian Warrell, the leading expert on Turner, this selection from the fabled Hickman Bacon collection is one of the finest groups of British watercolours in existence, and hardly ever seen or reproduced. Centered around 32 watercolours by Turner, including some of his breathtaking views of the Alps, early views, and late cloud and sea studies, the collection also encompasses some of the greatest works by Turner's contemporaries: John Sell Cotman, Alexander Cozens, Thomas Girtin, Peter de Wint, John Crome, David Cox and others. Beautifully printed on heavy uncoated paper, with some reproductions life size, this book conveys the intensity and freshness and stupendous virtuosity of these artists whose work in watercolour has never been rivalled. An extended essay by the leading expert and former Tate curator Ian Warrell examines the paintings and gives a vivid picture of the artists who made them.

The first volume exclusively devoted to J.M.W. Turner's erotic works, bringing together an outstanding selection of sensual and passionate drawings by the great master, all drawn from Tate's collection. Up until a few years ago, biographies of both J.M.W. Turner and John Ruskin had claimed that, in 1858, Ruskin burned bundles of erotic paintings and drawings by Turner in a fit of embarrassed Victorian censorship, to protect Turner's posthumous reputation. Ruskin's friend Ralph Nicholson Wornum, who was Keeper of the National Gallery, was said to have colluded in the alleged destruction. However, in 2005 these works, which form part of the Turner Bequest held at Tate Britain, were re-appraised by Turner scholar Ian Warrell, who suggested that Ruskin and Wornum did not destroy the sketches and that almost all of the allegedly destroyed drawings are in the Tate collection. This lavishly illustrated book, the first exclusively devoted to Turner's erotic work, examines in detail this little known aspect of the artist's oeuvre. In his original essay, fully reproduced here, Warrell places the work within the context of Turner's social and artistic milieu, contemporary preoccupations with art for public and 'private' consumption, and the details and intricacies of Turner's life and output. An essential addition to the canon of work on Britain's most prolific and adored artist, this beautifully produced volume will be of interest to scholars, connoisseurs, and all Turner devotees.

The first book to survey the full range of J.M.W. Turner's extraordinary sketchbooks, beginning with his teenage explorations and culminating in the masterful colour studies of his later years. J.M.W. Turner's sketchbooks provide us with a rare opportunity to witness the work processes of an artist of unparalleled importance. They give us a privileged look over Turner's shoulder, allowing us to witness the creation and development of ideas that can be traced through to his most famous paintings. In the absence of detailed written accounts of his extensive travels, the notebooks are also a record of his impressions of the many places he visited across Britain and Europe, and of his life.

An essential selection of J.M.W. Turner's beautiful and evocative depictions of Venice, the 'City of Water'. J.M.W. Turner's elegant pencil sketches and watercolours of Venice are so poignant and evocative that the gentle sound of water lapping against gondolas can almost be heard when looking at them. In this beautiful selection, Ian Warrell employs the very finest examples of Turner's Venetian studies to either guide your next visit or awaken your memories of trips past. Join Turner as he progresses through the city, beginning at St. Mark's Basilica with the Campanile towering above and the coral-coloured exterior of the Doge's Palace. Drift onward toward the Bridge of Sighs and take a detour past the Hotel Europa where Turner preferred to stay. Travel onwards past the Giardini Reali, the Punta della Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute on your way to San Giorgio Maggiore and the Accademia. Drift away from the bustling markets around the Rialto on the Grand Canal heading toward the Frari and the Scuola di San Rocco, demonstrating the inspiration taken from Venetian masters such as Tintoretto and Veronese.