Gurnet's Head

J.M.W. Turners Gurnets Head is a watercolor and gouache on blue wove paper that depicts the headland on the south side of Plymouth Sound in Devon, one of the coastal subjects that Turner returned to throughout his career and that inspired some of his most atmospheric and structurally daring works. Gurnets Head, a promontory that marks the eastern entrance to Plymouth Sound, provided Turner with a subject that combined topographic specificity with the dramatic effects of coastal light and weather that were central to his artistic practice. The blue wove paper provides a middle tone that Turner uses as both sky and sea, allowing the watercolor and gouache to create the forms of the headland and the atmospheric effects of light and cloud with a minimum of applied pigment. The gouache, an opaque watercolor medium, allows Turner to add highlights and accents that would not be possible with transparent watercolor alone, creating a contrast between the opaque whites and yellows of the highlights and the transparent washes of the sky and sea that gives the watercolor a textural variety approaching that of an oil painting. The combination of transparent and opaque techniques on a colored ground was one of Turners most important innovations in watercolor, and it influenced the development of the medium throughout the 19th century by demonstrating that watercolor could achieve the full range of tonal and textural effects that had previously been the province of oil painting.

Turners watercolors on colored paper were among his most innovative works in the medium, and their influence on the development of watercolor throughout the 19th century was profound. Gurnets Head demonstrates his use of the blue paper ground as an active compositional element rather than a passive support.

A watercolor and gouache by Turner on blue wove paper of Gurnets Head in Devon, using the blue ground as an active compositional element and combining transparent and opaque techniques for tonal and textural variety that approaches oil painting.