Today, The Art Fund, the UK’s leading art charity, and Tate, are launching a public appeal to help save Turner’s The Blue
Rigi for the nation. £2.45 million needs to be raised by 20 March towards a total price of £4.95 million to prevent the work entering a
private collection abroad. The charity also announced it was pledging £500,000, one of The Art Fund’s largest ever grants, towards the
fundraising campaign.
Members of the public will be able to pledge their support online by ‘buying a brushstroke’ from The Blue Rigi, by
visiting a special website created for online donations at www.artfund.org/savebluerigi. To launch the campaign several leading artists
have bought brushstrokes to support the appeal including David Hockney, Peter Blake, Michael Craig-Martin, Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller,
Peter Doig, Antony Gormley, Howard Hodgkin, Anish Kapoor, Fiona Rae, Bridget Riley, Mark Wallinger and Rachel Whiteread. Each online
brushstroke costs £5 and the aim is to have raised £300,000 when the image is complete.
The Blue Rigi was sold at auction on 5 June 2006 for the record price of £5.8 million making it the most expensive
British watercolour ever sold. A temporary export bar has been placed on the painting until 20 March 2007 by the Culture Minister, David
Lammy.
David Barrie, Director of The Art Fund, said: ‘The Blue Rigi represents the very pinnacle of Turner’s achievement in
watercolour – the medium which he revolutionised and of which he was perhaps the supreme master. There is very little chance of Tate ever
acquiring another Turner watercolour of this stature again. It would be a huge shame if we didn’t do everything we could to secure it for
public enjoyment for generations to come.’
In December last year Tate announced it was allocating £2 million of its own funds towards
The Blue Rigi and that it was bringing together, for the first time ever, the three Rigi paintings in an exhibition
opening at Tate Britain on 22 January 2007. Tate has also made a funding application to the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate, said: ‘I am delighted that The Art Fund recognises the importance of saving Turner’s
The Blue Rigi from going abroad by awarding Tate one of the largest grants in its history. With Tate’s commitment of £2 million – the
highest sum ever allocated from Tate funds towards an acquisition – we are now halfway towards our goal. We are in a race against time to
raise the remaining funds. I hope by launching this public appeal with The Art Fund we will ignite the public’s support in saving this
truly exceptional watercolour by one of Britain’s greatest painters.’
Turner’s late Swiss watercolours have remained one of the most highly regarded aspects of his output. Within this
grouping the three views of Mount Rigi are seen as especially important. Each Rigi painting captures the mountain at a different time of
day and is characterised by a defining colour or tone: Dark, Blue or Red. The Red Rigi has been in the National Gallery of Melbourne
since 1947, but the The Blue Rigi and The Dark Rigi have been, until this year, in private collections.
The Blue Rigi , which is in exceptional condition, would be the only finished watercolour from the Swiss series of the
1840s to enter the Tate Collection. Painted in 1842, The Blue Rigi is regarded as amongst the finest achievements not only of Turner, but
the watercolour medium as a whole. John Ruskin, the pre-eminent art critic of the time, wrote of the Rigi paintings that ‘Turner had
never made any drawings like these before, and never made any like them again… He is not showing his hand in these, but his heart.’
Turner captures the mountain just before dawn when the rising sun begins to chase away the cool darkness of night. The Turner Bequest at
Tate includes a tonal study for The Blue Rigi providing a unique context for the understanding and enjoyment of this masterpiece. The
bequest also contains atmospheric colour impressions of the Rigi dating from Turner’s final visits to Lucerne in the 1840s, including
those in the ‘Lucerne’ sketchbook of 1844 – some of which will be on show as part of Tate’s exhibition.
ENDS
Press enquiries:
Sarah Harrison/Tanera Bryden, The Art Fund. T: 020 7225 4820/4822
Helen Beeckmans/Louise Butler, Tate. T: 020 7887 8730/8732
Notes to editors:
• The Art Fund has given grants towards 30 works by Turner since 1903. 176 works by Turner have been distributed as
gifts and bequests in the same period.
• The Art Fund is the UK’s leading independent art charity. It offers grants to help UK museums and galleries enrich
their collections and campaigns widely on behalf of museums and their visitors. It has 80,000 members.
• Since its foundation in 1903, The Art Fund has helped UK public collections acquire over 850,000 works of art,
ranging from Bronze Age treasures to contemporary works of art
• In 2006 The Art Fund offered over £5 million to museums and galleries
• In 2006 The Art Fund unveiled one of the most significant projects in its history – a permanent ‘Skyspace’ at
Yorkshire Sculpture Park by the American artist James Turrell
• In November 2006 The Art Fund published the findings from its groundbreaking research comparing the collecting
ability of four UK national museums with their international counterparts. The research found that UK museums have a tiny fraction of the
spending power of major museums abroad. An Art Fund survey undertaken earlier in the year found that 70% of UK museums now acquire new
works of art mainly or solely by gift. The findings of both surveys are available online at www.artfund.org/policyandcampaigns
<http://www.artfund.org/policyandcampaigns>
• Independent of government, The Art Fund is uniquely placed to campaign on behalf of public collections across the UK.
In was at the forefront of the campaign for free admission in 2001 and the campaign to save the Macclesfield Psalter on 2005
• Visit the charity’s website at www.artfund.org <http://www.artfund.org/> .
• Visit Tate’s website at www.tate.org.uk <http://www.tate.org.uk/>
• JMW Turner: Three Rigis is at Tate Britain from 22 January to 20 March 2007
