Tate Britain celebrates Turner’s 250th birthday with new displays in the gallery and across the UK

Tate Britain today celebrates the 250th birthday of renowned painter JMW Turner. To mark the anniversary, a new room showcasing his watercolours and drawings opens today, part of the gallery’s permanent free display of over 100 works by Turner. As one of the world’s biggest lenders of art, Tate is also bringing over 100 more Turner paintings to museums and galleries across the UK and the globe this year, as well as working with the BBC to bring Turner to TV screens nationwide.

Born on 23 April 1775, JMW Turner is widely considered to be the greatest and most influential British artist of all time. From humble beginnings, he travelled the length and breadth of the country to capture its dramatic scenery, redefining landscape painting in the process. Today he remains a touchstone of British cultural life – the face on the £20 note – and the painter behind some of the most iconic images of the natural world ever created.

Tate holds the world’s greatest collection of Turner’s paintings. To mark the artist’s birthday, a new room has opened today within Tate Britain’s permanent free display of his work. The room showcases some of the artist’s exquisite watercolours and sketches, including the earliest Turner in Tate’s collection, made when he was only 12 years old, as well as a dramatic image of a building on fire, long believed to be the Houses of Parliament but now newly revealed as the Tower of London. The display draws on the latest research developed while preparing a new comprehensive catalogue of Turner’s 37,500 works on paper. Over 20 years in the making, this definitive guide is being completed this year and will be freely accessible on Tate’s website from November, offering a unique insight into the artist’s ideas and methods.

Later this year, Tate Britain will open a new video installation about Turner’s travels across Europe, publish a new introductory video about the artist on the Tate Kids website, and collaborate on a major new BBC documentary about his art and life. The gallery will also stage an international conference to share the latest developments in Turner research, supported by The Manton Foundation Fund for Historic British Art Scholarship. The year of celebrations will culminate in a major new exhibition opening at Tate Britain on 27 November, Turner and Constable, exploring the rivalry between these two great figures of British art history.

Beyond the gallery, Tate is also marking Turner’s birthday with an extensive lending programme. Opening today, a group of Turner’s watercolours of animals, birds and fish from Tate’s collection can be seen as part of a new exhibition at Turner’s House in Twickenham. Visitors to Turner Contemporary can currently enjoy the evocative oil painting Waves Breaking on a Lea Shore at Margate, while in Manchester a selection of works on paper have been loaned to the Whitworth’s current exhibition JMW Turner: In Light and Shade. Tate will soon be lending further Turner works to upcoming exhibitions at Harewood House in Leeds, Petworth House in Sussex, Preston Park Museum in County Durham, and the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, as well as to major shows across Europe and Asia.

Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain, said “Turner has been a source of wonder, inspiration and joy for over two centuries. Through new scholarship and research, we are constantly discovering fresh stories to tell about his life and his art. In this very special anniversary year, I’m delighted that Tate is enabling millions of people to experience Turner’s work here at Tate Britain, as well as in other museums and galleries across the UK and the world.”