The largest collection of watercolors by the British artist J.M.W. Turner opened at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut on Saturday.
Museum Senior Vice President Nicholas Bell says their new exhibition hall was built with the artist in mind.
“This building must be good enough for Turner because for a community built on the relationship to the sea, Turner was the apex of that vision. He is the greatest marine artist in our history. It is indeed a rare opportunity to see so many Turner watercolors. In fact we believe this is the highest volume of Turner watercolors ever to travel to the United States from England.”
David Blayney Brown is a senior curator from Tate Britain, who is behind the travelling exhibition.
Brown says Mystic was an obvious choice for them to bring the exhibition to.
“Well, this is an exhibition about watercolor. It’s an exhibition with many works in it to do with the sea and marine life, marine subject matter and so on. And of course Mystic is a seaport.”
This is the only North American venue for the exhibition of 100 watercolors, oil paintings, and one of Turner’s sketchbooks.
The exhibition runs until the end of February next year.