There’s not a trace of shaving foam in sight in the early Turners on show at Salisbury Museum

Turner’s Wessex — Architecture and Ambition

Salisbury Museum, until 27 September

Soundscapes

National Gallery, until 6 September

It has often been related how, towards the end of his long life, a critical barb got under J.M.W. Turner’s skin. ‘Soapsuds and whitewash!’ Turner apparently snorted, repeatedly, to himself. However, until now no one has traced the perpetrator of this memorably tart comment.

Now we know. It was the scandalous, super-rich patron and novelist William Beckford, who made it in 1831 while taking a visitor on a tour of his collection.

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TaggedChris Watson, Fonthill Abbey, Ian Warrell, JMW Turner, National Gallery, Richard Colt Hoare, Salisbury Museum, Soundscapes, Susan Philipsz, Turner’s Wessex — Architecture and Ambition, William Beckford, ‘Air on a Broken String’

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There’s not a trace of shaving foam in sight in the early Turners on show at Salisbury Museum

Plus: Soundscapes at the National Gallery reviewed: Martin Gayford reckons that soundtracks are best left inside the artist’s head

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