news updates today: Herschel may have changed how Turner painted the sun

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Herschel may have changed how Turner painted the sun

Kat Austen, CultureLab editor

(Image: The Festival of the Opening of the Vintage, Macon (oil on canvas), Turner, Joseph Mallord William (1775-1851) / Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, UK / Photo ? Museums Sheffield / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Here at CultureLab we are always interested to hear about cross-pollination between arts and sciences. So, we were intrigued to hear about new research linking astronomer William Herschel?s 1801 Royal Society lectures on imperfections on the sun?s surface to the way our star is portrayed in the paintings of esteemed 19th century English artist J.M.W. Turner.

In a new essay entitled "Earth?s Humid Bubbles" published in the book Turner and the Elements (which accompanies a forthcoming exhibition of the same name), Turner biographer James Hamilton implies something even more intriguing.

In Turner?s day, the Royal Society scientific institution and Royal Academy arts body were both located in Somerset House, London. Turner was a member of the Royal Academy when Herschel gave his lectures and Hamilton argues that exposure to Herschel?s ideas culminated in his painting the sun as a real object, instead of just a hazy source of light. He identifies Turner?s 1803 painting The Festival upon the Opening of the Vintage of M?con as the first in which he depicts the sun this way, interpreting it as ?purposefully and intentionally painted in three different textures to give the sun physical reality within the painting?. This, he argues, is a reflection of Herschel?s consideration of the sun as ?an object, with physical features?.

Hamilton points out that there were thin walls between the rooms of the Royal Society and Royal Academy, through which, by all accounts, you could hear arguments and applause. He places Turner and Herschel on opposite sides at similar times in April 1801. The inference is that Turner could have overheard Herschel?s lectures - an appealing idea that was jumped on by the BBC.

But Hamilton provides no solid evidence for this implication. He even states emphatically that there is nothing to say that Turner ever attended any Royal Society lectures. When pushed on the suggestion that Turner overheard the lectures, he explained that his phraseology regarding the thin adjoining walls in Somerset House had been ?poetic?.

It is incredibly hard to pin down influences on the creative process, and a direct, causal link between Herschel?s lectures and Turner?s painting technique is lacking. Turner was regularly at the intellectual hotbed that was Somerset House in the early 1800s, though, and Hamilton argues that ?the burden of proof has moved,? regarding the way scientists and artists may have exchanged ideas there. ?It is for people to say that, no, they couldn?t have mixed?, he says.

But if we put aside the niceties of how Turner might have heard about Herschel?s work, Hamilton?s essay - tenuous implications aside - contains an intriguing broader hypothesis: that Turner changed the way in which he painted the sun in response to changes in scientific understanding.

Herschel?s work undoubtedly altered the way people conceived of the sun. According to Debbie James, curator of the Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath, UK, ?Before Herschel, people hadn?t realised that the sun was the core of the solar system.? When it came to convincing people that the sun is a physical object, she adds, ?I think Herschel made a huge amount of progress.? As the ripples of Herschel?s experimental observations spread out through society, it is likely that they would have reached Turner one way or another, especially given the artist?s interest in nature.

If there was a change in Turner?s depiction of the sun, there are some correlations (not causations, mind you) in Turner?s painting that do hint at a link. The first is the timing of The Festival upon the Opening of the Vintage of M?con, coming two years after Herschel?s lectures. This was long enough for the ideas to percolate, even indirectly, through to Turner, who had also been away from his studio in the interim on a trip around Europe. The second is that, prior to M?con, Turner had depicted the moon as a physical entity, but had not done the same for the sun.

The influence of Herschel?s discoveries on the arts is well known, says James. ?From 1781 onwards he suddenly raised awareness about the solar system and the way the planets revolved around the sun. All of the major painters of the day took this up - they all start mentioning Herschel?s work in various ways.? So, did he change the way Turner painted the sun? Possibly.

The exhibition, Turner and the Elements, opens at the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, England on 28 January.