How the US National Gallery and Tate were beaten to Turner masterpiece

The Art Newspaper ^ | Sept. 14, 2006 | Martin Bailey

[Republicanprofessor]

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Tate in London have both been outmanoeuvred by a London dealer in their attempts to buy Turner’s masterpiece, The Dark Rigi. We can reveal the story of how the picture was sold to a private buyer on the very day that a similar Turner watercolour, The Blue Rigi, fetched £5.8m at auction, a record price for a British work on paper.

The Dark Rigi, which is at the centre of the row, had been in an English private collection since 1975. Earlier this year it came onto the market, through London-based dealer Simon Dickinson. He sold it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC on condition that a UK export licence was granted. The case went to the Export Reviewing Committee on 11 May. The panel decided that The Dark Rigi fell under the Waverley criteria, and that efforts should therefore be made to keep the work in Britain.

[Republicanprofessor]

[Republicanprofessor]

Art ping.

Let Sam Cree, Woofie, or me know if you want on or off this art ping list.

[agere_contra]

Awesome picture.

[leilani]

Fascinating. As a Turner freak I had followed the sale of the Blue Rigi this summer, but didn't know all of this stuff about the Dark Rigi going on at the same time. Here's the Blue Rigi for comparison:

I would love for both works to end up at the Tate, but it'll probably never happen.

[ClaireSolt]

It is hard to follow the arcane rules for art sales. Two things are obvious, however. The museums try to hold the prices down and, one Turner is now worth more than he made in his lifetime.

There are already lots of Turners in the Tate.

[leilani]

I know (re the Tate Turner Collection.) I'm selfish, I guess. I like having them all in one place with the Turner Bequest. Makes it easier (& cheaper) for fans & scholars.

[VOA]

Dumb question...
Is Turner the one that captured the extreme sunsets following the
Krakatoa eruption (1888?)?

These paintings look to have a similar style to that accidental artistic documentation
of the brilliant (and varying) sunsets even in Europe in the year after that eruption.

[ClaireSolt]

I think there are good arguments on both sides. Truly, to be in a collection that masses an artist's work overshelms one in a way that one feels empathy and understanding in a way that one painting seldom does.

However, in general, I oppose government expropriation and it is just too ironic that the work of starving artists somehow becomes public property.

Of course most will never see the Tate but could see one Turner somewhere else. Too, if Iran bombs London, all might be lost.

[Joe 6-pack]

Perhaps you are thinking of Church's Cotopaxi....?

[Republicanprofessor]

I don't know about paintings following the Krakotoa eruption. But since Turner died in 1851 (I had to look it up myself), you must be thinking of a different artist.

I do like the Church Cotapaxi connection that Joe 6-pack just made.

[leilani]

But Turner himself selected the Tate for his privately held work in bequest. And the Tate is one of the very best about sending their collection all over the world.

You're right about the bombing thing though. Hadn't even thought about that! Maybe it is better to spread it out in that case....

[leilani]

Turner didn't need no stinkin' Krakatoa for inspiration, lol!Here's Fighting Temeraire voted best British painting by the people of UK last year I think it was:

This one's at the National Gallery, Claire, so I guess it'll go too if the bomb's big enough. YIKES!

[Sam Cree]

"However, in general, I oppose government expropriation and it is just too ironic that the work of starving artists somehow becomes public property."

I'm always uncomfortable when private property becomes a "national treasure." Shades of Kelo, almost.

[ClaireSolt]

Lots of great art has been destoyed by war and fires.

[Sam Cree]

Have you seen the Turners in the Frick, and if so, how do you like them, RP?

On first viewing, I hadn't liked them as much as I expected too, so was wondering if they just were not such great examples, or whether I'm not as much of a Turner fan as I thought.

[leilani]

Yes. Even recently: IIRC, a huge collection of Rodin drawings & sculpture owned by Cantor Fitzgerald at the WTC were destroyed on 9/11.

But another argument for the Tate is that they've got virtually everything beautifully digitized - they were always way ahead of other institutions in that regard. Though if Islam wins in the big one, I doubt very much they'd let us keep our laptops. ;-(

[ClaireSolt]

They will purge all images, too. They are iconoclasts, you know.

[Republicanprofessor]

I haven't been to the Frick in too long to say.....

Often our expectations can mar our experience of an artwork. I know that Dali's "melted clocks" (aka The Persistence of Memory) always seems so small when I see it at the MOMA.

[VOA]

Looks like Turner is definitely out of the running!

I think the name of the fellow I was recollecting was William Ashcroft
as mentioned below.

http://www.library.uiuc.edu/gex/Classes/ClimateChangeInformation.html

In the year 1883, the volcanic island Krakatoa erupted near Java, Indonesia,
essentially destroying itself (Winchester, 2003). Subsequently, due to
the large amount of ash that spread through the world's atmosphere, striking
sunsets were experienced worldwide. Artists such as William Ashcroft (England)
and Frederick Church (New York) recorded those sunsets in their paintings.

Winchester, Simon, 2003, Krakatoa: The day the world exploded, August 27,
1883: New York, Harper-Collins, 416 p.

[Sam Cree]

"Often our expectations can mar our experience of an artwork"

Sometimes I like art better when I see it in person than I thought I would. For instance, I never had much opinion one way or the other on Anthony Van Dyke, but when I saw his portraits at the Frick, I was stunned. The figures looked like they might step right out of the painting and start talking to you. So now, he's a favorite.

[Rembrandt_fan]

I, too, am a Turner Freak. As a group, we haven't yet come up with a secret handshake, and we don't do the fish fry tent at the county fair, but it's a marvelous fraternity, for all that.

A few come close, but Turner is the greatest colorist of all time.

[StormEye]

Hey, I saw this one at the National Gallery of Art, Wash. D.C. in the late 1980's.

[Jane Austen]

I love this painting.

[MinuteGal]

At first I thought the "Rigi" was a river or the body of water depicted in the painting.

However, the Rigi is the mountain, not the water. It's in central Switzerland and part of the Alps.

Rigi is also known as the "Queen of Mountains." It's enjoyed by the multitudes for climbing, hiking, sledding and skiing. A cable car takes you to the top.

Leni

[leilani]

I, too, am a Turner Freak. As a group, we haven't yet come up with a secret handshake, and we don't do the fish fry tent at the county fair, but it's a marvelous fraternity, for all that.

Ah, but there does indeed exist a very special fraternity for highly discriminating aesthetes such as yourself, my dear fellow turnerian! Alas, as is the case with Free Republic, you must pay your dues in order to receive instructions on the secret handshake. You can either send your £30 in by post to the society's HQ in London, or, better still, take advantage of the pilgrim's discount by leaving a £20 note at Norham Castle, Sunrise, on the Morning After The Deluge. whereupon you will immediately be given your ticket for admission to the fish fry on April 23 at the corner of Millbank & Atterbury on the banks of the Thames. Be there or be square, baby!

[leilani]

You're right it's in the Alps. He spent quite a bit of time in Switzerland in his late sixties. This is JMW Turner's Sunset From the Top of the Rigi, an unfinished oil on canvas circa 1844. It's sort of interesting, because though it's unfinished (there are a lot of these in the Turner Collection at the Tate, acquired through bequest to the museum at his death), it shows early on in the process of how he worked layering color to achieve the gorgeous atmospherics he's famous for.