J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851), the great British landscape painter and one of the most revolutionary influences on Western art since the eighteenth century, left upon his death a rich and varied legacy to Britain’s National Gallery. Among his work were more than 19,000 sketch studies that contained a considerable body of erotica.When John Ruskin, Turner’s greatest supporter at the time, discovered the erotic works, he — with the help of National Gallery Keeper Ralph Wornum — burned most of the material they found offensive.But through betrayal and theft, some of the erotica has escaped the flames…The Turner Erotica follows narrator William James Stillman, a young American artist and diplomat, as he pursues a dangerous quest across Britain, Europe, and New England to discover and save the few remaining erotic studies that—through theft and betrayal—escaped Ruskin’s outraged fire. Stillman is convinced that the surviving erotic studies are not only invaluable to British art history, but contain a secret clue to the master’s celebrated body of public work. In his quest, Stillman enlists the help of Pre-Raphaelite artist William Rossetti, the liberated American painter Allegra Fullerton, and Britain’s greatest swordsman and adventurer of the day, Sir Richard Burton. Unlocking the secret of Turner’s work becomes an obsession that threatens to consume Stillman and blind him to his obligations—to his friends, to his family, and even to himself.Based on actual people and events, this thrilling story brings the nineteenth century world of art, diplomacy, and intrigue vivdly alive.
