And, in a museum first, the Norwich Castle show brings together four landscapes of a bridge which renowned Romantic artist Joseph Mallord William Turner painted decades apart.
The paintings of the Bridges at Walton, on the River Thames – the centrepiece of the JMW Turner And Changing Visions Of Landscape exhibition – have been drawn from the collections of Norwich Castle, Tate and a private one.
Painted between 1805 and the 1840s, each painting gives a completely different character to the one location.
Turner’s 1805/6 version of Walton Bridges was acquired by Norfolk Museums Service in 2019, after a fundraising campaign to save it for the nation.
Curator Dr Francesca Vanke said: “I’m delighted we’re now able to share with our visitors the final exhibition in the series based around Turner’s Walton Bridges.
“This show represents the culmination of a five-year long project which included exhibitions at Colchester Castle, Lynn Museum, Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich, and Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth.
“The painting has been looked at from many different angles, and it now forms the centrepiece of an exhibition which explores wider aspects of landscape.
“In curating this exhibition my aim has been to show what landscape can mean, what it can look like and represent for us all, past and present.
“This infinite variety reflects what it meant for Turner, for whom depicting landscapes was everything, the centre of his life.”
READ MORE: Norwich Castle revamp hits milestone as new entrance opens
Alongside paintings and drawings by Turner, is work by painters who influenced him and work which he inspired, with more than 70 works by 40-plus artists.
The show marks the 250th anniversary of his birth in 1775.
The exhibition will be on show at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery until Sunday, February 23.
Entry to the exhibition is included with general admission to the museum.
