Although Venice is one of the most photographed cities in the world, few are able to capture the image of Venice suspended by magic over the lagoon, in a unique mixture of water and stone.
Luckily, there are many great artists who have represented the charm and mystery of Venice, forever immortalizing in their works the secret and intimate beauty of the city, which is not always possible to see live!
A great artist who, through his works, was able to exalt the profound soul of Venice is William Turner, one of the most important exponents of English Romanticism.
In his life, the painter William Turner only stayed three times in Venice. Four weeks in all between 1819, the year of his first Grand Tour, and 1841, the year of his last trip to Italy.
Despite his brief stay in Venice, Turner developed such an intense relationship with the city that it left an indelible mark.
Turner made two different aspects of Venice coexist in his paintings: a public city, made up of great monuments and recognized subjects, and a more reserved dimension, made up of moments of reflection and landscapes that have a highly personal bond.
This second aspect is certainly the one that best allows us to understand the relationship between the artist and the city, and to see some glimpses and corners of a Venice less considered in the artistic panorama. In his paintings of him, he depicted the sense of a different Venice than the crowds in Piazza San Marco and the water traffic on the Giudecca Canal.
Turner’s is a transparent, luminous and colorful Venice. His works focus on an unprecedented use of color that makes the represented image charged with an innovative pathos.
The most recurring element among Turner’s subjects is the water of the lagoon, it represents in every detail, in every reflection, without ever caging the movement, as can be seen in the work “La Dogana, San Giorgio and the Zitelle from the steps of the Europa hotel “
