The New York Public Library Presents Sublime: the Prints of J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Moran

OCTOBER 6: In its new free exhibition Sublime: the Prints of J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Moran, The New York Public Library will showcase the landscapes of two innovative contemporaries, both of whom sought to evoke qualities of the sublime through their expressive depictions of nature.  

The free exhibition showcases nearly 100 prints from the Library’s extensive collections, and will run from Oct. 17 to Feb. 15 on the third floor’s Stokes and Print Galleries of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

When British Romantic painter and printmaker Joseph Mallord William Turner published his Liber Studiorum between 1807 and 1819, he aimed to elevate the genre of landscape. The striking and ambitious suite of prints was well-known and shaped the ways in which Turner’s peers came to view the natural world’s more formidable characteristics. Deeply influenced by Turner, American artist and printmaker Thomas Moran traveled to Great Britain to experience the Englishman’s art first-hand and early on traded his own watercolors to acquire the Liber Studiorum, both of which affected how he would later treat his subjects in the United States.

"Celebrated for his trailblazing images of Yellowstone and Colorado, Moran developed an iconic image of the American West,” said Madeleine Viljoen, curator of the exhibition and Library’s Print Collection. “Pairing him with Turner allows the viewer to appreciate the degree to which his vision responds to and is inflected by the Englishman's sense of the sublime."

In addition to featuring works by Turner – including many unique, unpublished versions – and by Moran, Sublime will include prints by Claude Lorrain, John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, William Gilpin, Eugène Isabey, Charles-François Daubigny and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, whose works illustrate the continuing thread of ideas about landscape that connects them all.

This exhibition has been made possible by the continuing generosity of Miriam and Ira D. Wallach.  Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Programs has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman.

Contact:

Sara Beth Joren | sarabethjoren@nypl.org

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