{"id":668347,"date":"2026-05-14T06:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/668347\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T06:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:26:09","slug":"most-famous-image-of-jmw-turner-not-a-self-portrait-says-expert-jmw-turner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/668347\/","title":{"rendered":"Most famous image of JMW Turner not a self-portrait, says expert | JMW Turner"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2020, Tate Britain<\/a> hosted the launch of a new \u00a320 banknote bearing representations of The Fighting Temeraire by JMW Turner and the artist\u2019s most famous self-portrait. Now a leading expert has said the latter work, part of the Tate collection, is not by Turner at all.<\/p>\n

Dr James Hamilton<\/a>, who has published books on Turner and staged exhibitions at museums and galleries nationwide, said that while the painting does depict the English Romantic painter, it is likely to be the work of his contemporary, John Opie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hamilton told the Guardian he started researching the portrait because \u201cthere\u2019s nothing else like it in Turner\u2019s work\u201d. He said he \u201callowed its title to pass without comment\u201d in his 1997 book, Turner \u2013 A Life, and even used it on the book\u2019s cover, but had \u201cfailed to think hard enough about it\u201d.<\/p>\n

He now believes the portrait was misattributed after being included among nearly 300 oil paintings and 30,000 sketches and watercolours in the Turner Bequest following the artist\u2019s death in 1851.<\/p>\n

A 19th-century engraving of artist John Opie. Illustration: Alamy<\/p>\n

Hamilton said: \u201cTurner\u2019s relations challenged the will and, after a long, tortuous court case, the judge said the family can have the money and the nation gets the pictures \u2013 not only the ones that he wanted the nation to have, but everything by his hand in his studio \u2026 There were many pictures hanging in disarray in Turner\u2019s house in Queen Anne Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had no way of knowing who the portrait might be by if it wasn\u2019t by Turner and of course it was too good to lose. So it was lumped in with the rest. But it was never, even on early lists, a \u2018self-portrait\u2019. It was always a \u2018portrait of Turner\u2019. Gradually, over the years, it became an assumption that it was by him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The painting, dated c1799 when Turner was 24, was created by a master portrait painter with \u201cbrilliant dexterity\u201d, Hamilton added.<\/p>\n

Turner and The Fighting Temeraire as seen on the \u00a320 banknote. Illustration: Bank of England\/PA<\/p>\n

He concluded that stylistic evidence points to Opie, who depicted his sitters in a similar \u201clight emerging dramatically from dark\u201d.<\/p>\n

Among numerous examples of Opie\u2019s work, Hamilton singled out a portrait of an unidentified young man<\/a> in the San Diego Museum of Art. \u201cThis has a similar full-face directness as the Turner portrait \u2013 sparkly eyes, energetic shadow-play and a curious interest in untidy hair,\u201d he said. \u201cIndeed, the two portraits are immediately comparable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that Opie painted numerous artists, including David Wilkie<\/a> and Thomas Girtin<\/a>, and that at least four of those portraits ended up with the sitters\u2019 families. Opie is known to have admired Turner\u2019s talent, and Hamilton suggested he may have given Turner\u2019s portrait to its sitter as it then had \u201clittle or no commercial value to its creator\u201d.<\/p>\n

Writing in the spring issue of Turner Society News<\/a>, which publishes his research this week, Hamilton calls on the Tate to reattribute the work to Opie. \u201cTurner would not have appeared on the \u00a320 note if there had not been so extraordinarily striking a portrait as this,\u201d he argues. \u2018So, if indeed he did, we should be grateful to Opie for taking Turner on as a sitter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Pieter van der Merwe, the chair of the Turner Society<\/a>, said that Hamilton had made \u201ca good case for it not being a self-portrait, both on documentary grounds and from a lack of anything similar in his work, and a plausible but only speculative one for Opie\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that he was \u201cnot aware of anyone tackling this so thoroughly before\u201d, but expected the Tate not to change its attribution, \u201csince there is also the legal point that the Turner Bequest only comprises work by him \u2026 If positively proved to be by anyone else, it might \u2013 at least in theory \u2013 become a \u2018restitution\u2019 issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mark Carney, then governor of the Bank of England, launches the Turner \u00a320 note at Tate Britain in 2020. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Turner stipulated in his will that his artworks should be housed together in a dedicated gallery. The fact they are split between the National Gallery and Tate Britain has long been criticised by Turner\u2019s descendants and others.<\/p>\n

Dr Selby Whittingham, a leading Turner scholar and former curator of Manchester Art<\/a> Gallery is one such critic, who also remains convinced the portrait is correctly attributed. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s by Opie. Its light tonality is characteristic of Turner\u2019s work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hamilton said: \u201cNothing would please me more than for the Tate to show us that this is a self-portrait \u2026 But they haven\u2019t \u2026 Don\u2019t tell us, show us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Tate spokesperson said: \u201cAs the home of the Turner Bequest, we always welcome new ideas about Turner\u2019s life and new interpretations of his work. We look forward to exploring James Hamilton\u2019s research further.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2020, Tate Britain hosted the launch of a new \u00a320 banknote bearing representations of The Fighting Temeraire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-668347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}