On Friday 11th February, ten talented young artists from the Junior School at the College were among the first visitors to the new Turner, Whistler and Monet Exhibition at Tate Britain. The eleven to thirteen year olds, who are all members of an art group for gifted pupils at the school, were delighted to be accompanied by renowned art critic and TV presenter, Andrew Graham-Dixon.

'He guided us through an amazing exhibition that dealt with the conversation Whistler and Monet had with the ghost of Turner,” said Head of Junior School Art, Emma Neville, who organised the special trip. “What an experience, the children, and on-lookers, were enthralled!'

The children were equally enthusiastic with one commenting, 'I came away feeling that I could now understand the concepts behind the Old Master's work and how Turner became a turning point for modern art.' 

Andrew Graham-Dixon is writer and presenter of the BBC television series Renaissance and the recently aired series: The Secret Lives of Artists. He was chief art critic at the Independent between 1986 and 1998. In the 1980s, he won the BP Arts Journalism Award three years running and, in 1991, the Hawthornden Prize for art criticism. His other books include the best-selling A History of British Art and a highly acclaimed monograph on Howard Hodgkin (1994) and Paper Museum (1996), a collection of his writings from the Independent. Andrew is the current art critic for The Sunday Telegraph. 

Turner, Whistler, Monet by Katie Rowley

After the tour of the exhibition, it was clear to see the connections between the three artists. For example, all three focused on light and often painted water too. There was also the question of ‘what is real’ and when is a painting ‘finished’? In addition, all three painted in London and Venice and painted various scenes from the cities in strange light, e.g. mist. It was in these cities that they were able to experience and paint water, light and solids all at once. The exhibition shows the development from Realism and to how Impressionism was created, and how Turner influenced Whistler and Monet.

Turner:
He was obsessed with the idea of ‘what is real’ and started painting light in detail. (Picture of ‘London from Greenwich Park’) Turner was the one who started the ideas and themes that influenced Whistler and Monet, and he especially focused on painting light and ‘what is real’.
(Picture ‘the burning of the houses of lords and commons’) This picture is one of his most famous paintings and shows the actual event happening.

Whistler:
He took Turner’s ideas of light and started to paint city scenes too. Only Whistler painted most of his pictures in night-time scenes. He thought this would bring out the bad things about London (picture: Nocturne: Blue and Silver-Chelsea) He named his night-time pictures ‘nocturnes’ and painted many of them involving water and ‘night-light’. Whistler was also influenced by Japanese art, and the Battersea Bridge is based on a Japanese bridge. In addition, he signed many of his paintings using a Japanese style signature, but Turner definitely influenced his work the most. (Picture – Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge)

Monet:
Turner and Whistler influenced him too. He also painted light and water scenes in and around London, and later Venice. However, Monet took these ideas a step further, and started a style of art known as ‘impressionism’. His style of work is very different but you can see the influences of Turner and Whistler. (Pictures of ‘Charing Cross bridge, the Thames’ and ‘Houses of parliament: effect of sunlight in the fog’)

My favourite artist was Monet and I particularly liked his pictures of buildings on the River Thames with the strange sun/moon light that reflects off the water. I liked the colours he used and the way he mixed them and left clear brush strokes. I liked his style of impressionist work and I think his pictures are the most pleasing and interesting to look at. I also liked the way that Andrew Graham-Dixon took us round. I thought it was clearer to see the connections and influences the artists had on each other. The only bad thing was that the rooms were too small to hold all the people so it was very busy and crowded. Overall, I enjoyed the trip and thought it was very good. It was nice to see all three artists in one exhibition, and interesting to see and understand their ‘silent conversation’ that they had with one another.