_-_Lucy%2C_Countess_of_Carlisle%2C_and_Dorothy_Percy's_Visit_to_their_Father_Lord_Percy%2C_when_under_Attainder_..._-_N00515_-_National_Gallery.jpg&width=1200)
Lucy, Countess of Carlisle, and Dorothy Percy’s Visit to their Father Lord Percy, when under Attainder ...
J. M. W. Turner·1831
Historical Context
Turner's historical genre scene depicting Lucy and Dorothy Percy's visit to their imprisoned father Lord Percy (1831) is an unusual work in his output — a literary-historical subject from English history rather than the pure landscape or marine that defined his reputation. The subject, drawn from seventeenth-century English history, allowed Turner to display his mastery of atmospheric interior light alongside the historical narrative subject matter that the Royal Academy valued above landscape. Exhibited in 1831, the work demonstrates Turner's range beyond his iconic nature paintings and his engagement with the Romantic interest in national historical drama.
Technical Analysis
Turner's interior light in this work glows with the incandescent quality he was developing in his mature period — the light source creating haze and warmth that dissolves solid form at the edges. Figures are subsumed into the luminous atmosphere; historical detail is suggested rather than specified. The technique is consistent with his move away from topographic precision.
Look Closer
- ◆Look for the historical scene Turner depicts — Lucy and Dorothy Percy visiting their father Lord Percy, who is under attainder — a scene of family loyalty during political crisis rendered in Turner's warm atmospheric manner.
- ◆Notice the historical costume Turner uses — the Jacobean dress that places the scene in the early seventeenth century, the period of the Percy family's political troubles.
- ◆Observe the atmospheric treatment Turner gives this historical subject — the warm indoor or parkland setting dissolving into the golden haze that characterizes his Petworth period work.
- ◆Find the figures themselves within the atmospheric warmth — Turner renders the emotional drama of the family meeting with characteristic atmospheric poetry rather than narrative precision.
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