Information and resources on "Drawing from Turner" at Tate Online.
Drawing from Turner
6 November 2006  –  20 May 2007

Drawings -  view by artist  or view by turner work

Karn Holly NEAC, artist  
About the artist:

Karn Holly, NEAC, is a painter who works primarily with landscape. She studied at Bournemouth College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools and has been visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art and the University of London. She lives and works in London.

on display
After Turner
from Rome: Colour Studies Sketchbook [Finberg CLXXXIX], Study for `Rome from the Vatican' 1819
Turner,from Rome: Colour Studies Sketchbook [Finberg CLXXXIX], Study for `Rome from the Vatican' 1819

After Turner
French Subject circa 1830
Turner, French Subject circa 1830

After Turner
from Grenoble Sketchbook [Finberg LXXIV], [title not known] 1802
Turner, from Grenoble Sketchbook [Finberg LXXIV], [title not known] 1802

Turner’s drawing Rome from the Vatican forms the basis for the central section of a large painting in the Clore Gallery (N00503). I chose it as I wanted to determine some of the strategies which might have been followed to shake the detailed, but rather prosaic note-taking of the drawing, into the poetry of the painting.

I decided to make a drawing that compared them and might, when finished, retain the elements of both. The work took about nine hours in sessions to complete.

Turner’s initial drawing took in a wide visual sweep, a notation of buildings and windows – a general and fast moving tourist’s eye, using uncomplicated marks. Some delicate notes - the oval of his palette nearby, an angled sunbeam, and beyond, the attentive eye of the Swiss Guard.

In the studio came relentless adjustments, sharpening the choreography of major elements. The viewpoint shifted to the left, agitating angles. Some proportions, particularly horizontals, were extended. A clear and graceful dynamic emerged, expanding the vista. Some tonal details were softened and architectural forms flowed elegantly through a reverberating suffusion of light. An image appeared of the splendid grandeur of the golden city in its golden age; the appropriate and eloquent setting for Raphael reviewing his paintings.