Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

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Figure 4. Detail (s howing cracks) from William Hilton the Yo unger's study of Editha's head fo r Edi­

tha and the Monks Searching for the Body of Harold, ca. 1834. Oil on canvas, 335 X 244

mm. Courtesy rf the Tate Gallery, London (N00333).

unlined. The paint dribbling down the tacking margins at an angle suggests

Tu rner used a sloping easel, probably the tripod type depicted in his water­

colors. There are very few descriptions of Tu rner painting, but observation

of the paintings and cross sections makes it clear that he thinned paint ex­

cessively, until it contracted into islands as it dried (visible in the fo reground);

at other times, he mixed paint in drying oil on the palette so rapidly as to

leave recognizable blobs of the added oil. Almost certainly, Tu rner completed

The Dawn of Christianity at the Royal Academy in the three days required of

other artists of his era fo r retouching sunken areas or appling varnish. The

sky paint was applied rather thickly with a palette knife, as was white impasto

in the lower right. Both paints consisted of good quality lead white with few

impurities. Turner sometimes modified the sky with opaque scumbles, but

rarely glazed it, emphasizing the contrast between the sky and the highly

glazed landscape in the fo reground. The middle ground was painted rapidly

Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice