JMW Turner and BG Windus:
Painter and Patron

During the lifetime of JMW Turner, the Windus collection in Tottenham was one of the largest and most distinguished of its kind and recognised as the best place in London to see Turner's work .
It is at Mr. Windus’s on Tottenham-green that Turner is on his throne. There he may be studied, understood, and admired – not in half-a-dozen or twenty instances, but in scores upon scores of choice examples.
The Gentleman’s Magazine, February 1852
According to Ruskin, BG Windus’s home was
‘… a cheerful little villa, with low rooms on the ground floor opening pleasantly into each other, like a sort of grouped conservatory, between his front and back gardens: their walls beset, but not crowded, with Turner drawings of the England series; while in his portfolio-stands, coming there straight from the publishers of the books they illustrated, were the entire series of the illustrations to Scott, to Byron, to the South Coast, and to Finden’s Bible’.
John Ruskin, Praeterita
Picture
A Storm (Shipwreck) British Museum
BG Windus commissioned John Scarlett Davis to paint the
Turner watercolours in his library. The artist was so accurate that
20 of the 31 pictures in the painting have been identified.

To see the paintings in the library click here
There are also links between John Constable,
the romantic painter and Turner's rival, and Tottenham.
Picture
Emma, Laura and Susanna Hobson of Tottenham by John Constable
LAST FEW WEEKS!
This year’s exhibition at Turner's House in Twickenham reveals how Turner captured environmental and social developments that would go on to change Britain and the world‘s climates forever. This will be the first exhibition dedicated to this subject. Highly attuned to changes in the landscape and atmosphere, Turner captured them in his ground-breaking paintings, drawings and engravings. Through his art, he documented plumes of smoke, burning furnaces, urban sprawl, deforested landscapes, overfishing and extreme weather. The exhibition will also seek to connect the changes that Turner was observing and capturing in beautiful works of art, with changes to the environment that we are currently seeing.

A series of online lectures that are closely linked to the exhibition. All of the lectures will be recorded and the recording sent to ticket holders. BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE – LINK
Find out about Luke Howard, Namer of Clouds, identifier of the Urban Heat Island effect and neighbour of BG Windus on Tottenham Green here
Some links to help you find out more about
BG Windus, his inheritance and neighbours.
The source of wealth which enabled BG Windus
to collect the works of one of the
foremost painters in England, JMW Turner.
Find out more about Tottenham, those who lived there and those who visited this home of Dissenters
Neighbours included the philanthropist and author, Priscilla Wakefield; Luke Howard, the 'Namer of Clouds' and the builder of the Martello towers, William Hobson.