J.M.W. Turner's influence on artists explored at Mystic Museum of Art

November 11, 2019 11:00 pm • Last Updated: November 12, 2019 2:23 pm

By Betty J. Cotter, Special to The Day

Henry Ward Ranger (1858-1916) “Under the Bough,” date unknown,MMoA Permanent Collection

You have until February to catch the groundbreaking exhibit of J.M.W. Turner works at Mystic Seaport. But if you're also interested in the companion exhibit at the Mystic Museum of Art, you're running out of time.

“Oil and Water: Mystic Art Colony Artists Respond to Turner” will be on display at the 9 Water St. gallery through Saturday.

Taken from the museum's collection, these paintings offer a postscript of sorts to British artist Turner's influence on the art world, from Impressionism to Tonalism.

Although the artists collected here were three to four generations removed from Turner, their composition, subject matter and technique were all influenced by him.

The earliest of them, Lorinda Dudley (1845 to 1930), also has the work most evocative of Turner. Her small watercolor “Mystic River with Pilings” is eerily reminiscent of such watercolors as his “Venice: Looking across the Lagoon Sunset” and “Sea and Sky,” both included in the Mystic Seaport show. Dudley's three pilings in the foreground, no more than sticks, and the sun behind a red haze are an homage to paintings made in her birth year or before.

The other artists here are interesting not because of their landscape subject matter, which was ubiquitous by the late 19th century, but their composition. Many of them foreground trees with branches reaching to the left, as though training the viewer's eye to the vanishing point. Turner learned this early, as can be seen in his “View in the Avon Gorge” (1791), also in the Mystic Seaport show.

Several oils in the Mystic Museum of Art exhibit make use of this technique, including Henry Ward Ranger's “Under the Bough” and Lester D. Boronda's “Lantern Hill,” although Boronda's bare tree leans right.

Most impressive of all is Earl Kenneth Bates's oil “The Great Oak.” This is foregrounding in the extreme, with the mighty roots and branches dominating the image like so many Hydra heads reaching for the viewer.

Except Dudley's Mystic River composition, Turner's touch is more subtle in the watercolor half of this exhibit. Andrew Messick's “Cypress Tree, Carmel Bay, California” foregrounds a left-leaning tree, but it points to a decidedly Pacific landscape. Harve Stein's “Harbor Scene at Dusk” has abstract elements, but the broad brushstrokes and spiky sailboats in the background are pure Turner.

Even into the 20th century, artists were standing on Turner's shoulders while providing their own nods to modernity. Margaret L. Tripplett's 1948 watercolor “Train Window at Dusk” blurs colors in just the way Turner would have. But her bright greens and yellows are almost neon, and the flashing scenes out her train window hint at how life had sped up since the days Turner roamed the Welsh countryside on horseback.

“Oil and Water” takes up two back rooms, with the museum's 41st annual photo exhibit filling the entry space and corridors. But viewers will want to start in those rear galleries, because they afford a rare opportunity to see art as the continuum it is.

"Lantern Hill," date unknown, oil on board, MMoA Permanent Collection, donated by Jessica and John Kam