_(attributed_to)_-_Scene_in_Southern_France_-_BIKGM-3117_-_Williamson_Art_Gallery_and_Museum.jpg&width=1200)
Scene in Southern France
J. M. W. Turner·c. 1813
Historical Context
This scene in southern France from around 1813 reflects Turner's extensive travels through France en route to Italy and the Alps. The Mediterranean light of southern France provided a transition between English atmospheric painting and the radiant Italian light that transformed his art. Turner's technique evolved from precise topographical watercolor toward atmospheric oil painting of radical freedom; his late works particularly dissolved architecture and nature into pure fields of colored light
Technical Analysis
Turner renders the southern landscape with warm, luminous tonalities, using the increased intensity of Mediterranean light to push his palette toward the brilliant effects of his later work.
Look Closer
- ◆Look at the southern French landscape — the Mediterranean light and vegetation that Turner found increasingly warm as he traveled south through France toward the Alps and Italy.
- ◆Notice the quality of light that distinguishes this from Turner's northern subjects — warmer, more golden, with a dryness in the atmospheric haze that differs from the humid English and Channel light.
- ◆Observe the landscape's compositional elements — hills, perhaps a river, vegetation — rendered with the warm palette Turner developed for southern European subjects.
- ◆Find any architecture or human presence — Turner's French road and river scenes typically include farmhouses, bridges, or figures that connect the atmospheric landscape to the human geography of the region.
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