John Doman Turner

Supporting notes:

“After being introduced by art critic Frank Rutter, who described Turner as ‘an amateur with a remarkable gift for watercolour’, he received artistic training from Spencer Gore. Turner would send Gore his drawings and, in return for 5 shillings, Gore would respond with letters critiquing Turner’s work.

The Tate Archive reading room has copies of 30 to 40 letters written by Spencer Gore to John Doman Turner over five years, between 1908 and 1913, transcribed from the original Gore collection. Also included is a letter sent from Turner to Gore.

The first letter is dated 8th June 1908, sent from Garth House, Hertingfordbury. Gore explains how the tuition will work and then describes how Turner should mark his work so that it can be referred to in his critiques: ‘Number each drawing so that I can refer to… Draw anything that interests you.’

Looking at early sketchbook drawings of Turner’s, I noticed several works have numbers associated with them, which appear to correspond with the numbers in Gore’s critiques. I’ve been able to identify up to work No. 685, but the letters refer to work No. 900. This suggests that Turner completed over 900 works over five years.

Music halls and theatres

Some of Turner’s most interesting drawings from his early sketches are those connected to the interiors of music halls and theatres. It is clear how influential Spencer Gore and Walter Sickert were in their teaching as these scenes were commonly depicted by other members of the Camden Town Group. It was Sickert’s habit to carry a small sketchbook to the London Music Hall, to sketch the performers, the crowd and even the architectural detail of the venue.

Turner did the same, drawing and painting watercolours in the Surrey Music Hall and South London Palace Music Hall.

Before his marriage, Gore went to the music hall every Monday and Tuesday evening, favouring the Alhambra Theatre located on the eastern side of Leicester Square, London.

Gore wrote to Turner in late 1908 or early 1909, ‘When you draw dark things, never to be too anxious to get things as dark as they are. If you wanted to bring the whole thing into tone with, for instance, the light on the stage, you could do it by passing a black over it afterwards.’

Source: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/john-doman-turner-letters-to-the-forgotten-camden-towner