Turner Monet Twombly: Later Paintings

Turner Monet Twombly makes a powerful case for a relationship between three of the world’s greatest artists: English Romantic J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840–1926), and American abstract painter Cy Twombly (1928–2011). Monet’s interest in Turner is well documented, while Twombly’s passion for both artists is less so. Focusing on each artist’s later paintings, author Jeremy Lewison highlights interests and themes they share, despite the centuries that separated them. All three were masters of color and shared an intensity and confidence borne of age. They also overlapped in their interest in Romanticism, the sublime, memory, and mourning. In the cases of Turner and Twombly, both were inspired by mythology, classicism, and the landscapes of Italy. Lewison’s insightful text also makes wider points about a so-called “late style”: a combination of physical changes to the artist’s body, a preoccupation with posterity, and a growing sense of the diminishment of time. Extensively and beautifully illustrated, this major survey sheds new light on achievements never previously considered together.