Bring Turner Home: Bristol does not win back iconic painting of the city!

National World - LocalTV

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery’s unprecedented one-week £100,000 fundraising campaign to acquire a recently rediscovered masterpiece by JMW Turner has captured the imagination of people across Bristol and beyond.

Transcript

00:00So, we're here in Bristol Museum and Art Gallery in the main entrance foyer.

00:06And tell me a little bit about the Bring Turner Home, the campaign, it's right behind you.

00:11So, it's an extraordinary story. We found out about a painting, a very rare and unusual painting of Bristol,

00:19painted by the most famous artist in the world, J.M.W. Turner, about three weeks ago.

00:24And it was going to auction and so we had to try and do everything we could to raise enough money

00:32to be able to go to auction and try and buy the painting for Bristol.

00:37But this painting by Turner dates to 1792 and it's an oil painting that he completed when he was just 17 years of age

00:49after two visits to Bristol to stay with the Narroway family.

00:55And he was scrambling all around the Avon Gorge, admiring the sublime landscape of the area

01:03and doing a lot of beautiful watercolours.

01:06And from those watercolours, he worked up the scene of Hot Wells, so the old spa on the Avon,

01:14to this oil painting which has just been sold at auction.

01:19So, behind us now is one of the blank frames that you really had hoped would have this Turner painting in.

01:26Tell me a little bit about what was the hope?

01:29The hope was that we could bring Turner's Rising Squall painting, painted when he was only 17,

01:37the first oil that he ever exhibited at the Royal Academy in London to Bristol.

01:44And I think all the supporters who got behind the campaign, the individuals, the funding bodies,

01:51they really felt that Bristol Museum and Art Gallery was the right home for that painting.

01:58And Turner was so inspired by the Avon Gorge and the landscape around Bristol.

02:05And it went on to inspire his career.

02:09And so this is the first of its kind of this scale for Bristol Museum in terms of a public campaign

02:17and trying to get a piece of Turner artwork.

02:20What have you guys learned? What was the process like?

02:24So, it was, we would have liked more time. It would have been great to have a bit more time.

02:29But what we learned is the passion and the support for art and culture from Bristol public is extraordinary.

02:36And we couldn't, yeah, we weren't expecting, we knew it was an ambitious target and we knew it would be a stretch,

02:43but we were really surprised and really bowled over by the amazing support from Bristol

02:48and the Bristol public who got behind it and helped chip in to help us raise an extraordinary amount in a very short space of time.

02:56And then, you know, hopefully we looked at it and there will be our new lady.

03:01Well, we walked around and, we've been doing quite a bit.

03:05And but, okay, you know.

03:07We've been doing quite a bit, we have a good idea.

03:09So, for me I'm working with you!

03:13I'm working with you, I work with you!

03:15It's amazing!

03:17And that's a good idea!

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended