"Turner and the Love of Art," by David H. Solkin, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

J.M.W. Turner often has been characterized as one of the most competitive figures in the history of European art, as someone who regarded the greatest masters (both past and present) as his rivals and who, by modeling his work on theirs, strove to demonstrate the superiority of his genius. This lecture explores what is arguably a more important dimension of Turner’s “imitations”: his abiding love of great art and the individuals who produced it.