In the anniversary year, this discussion will have some of the foremost Turner experts considering why this British artist hasn't lost any of his importance.
Moderated by The Burlington Magazine’s editor Christopher Baker, who looked after the National Gallery of Scotland’s Turner collection for many years, the panel of art historians includes Dr Jacqueline Riding, former curator of the Palace of Westminster and consultant on the film 'Mr Turner', Gillian Forrester, who was Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Yale Center for British Art, and Nicola Moorby, author of 'Turner and Constable' (2025).
Christopher Baker is the Editor of The Burlington Magazine and an Hon. Professor at Edinburgh University. He served as a Director at the National Galleries of Scotland for ten years and has also worked at Christ Church, Oxford, and the National Gallery in London. His research has focused on 18th and 19th-century British and European art, works on paper and the history of collecting . He has curated numerous exhibitions across the U.K. and internationally.
Dr Jacqueline Riding, former curator at the Palace of Westminster and director of the Handel House Museum, is the literary editor at The Art Newspaper, the historical advisor on Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner (2014) and Peterloo (2018),and curator of the exhibitions Turner’s Nudes (2022, with Franny Moyle) and Hogarth’s Britons (2023). Her books include biographies of William Hogarth (Sunday Times Art Book of the Year 2021) and, forthcoming, Charlie Chaplin (Profile 2026), and Thomas Gainsborough/Joshua Reynolds (Yale 2027). She has been a trustee of Turner's House since 2018.
Gillian Forrester is an independent art historian, curator, and writer. She was formerly Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Yale Center for British Art andspecializes in British print culture in a transnational context. She has a particular interest in the prints of J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, and curated exhibitions on Turner’s Liber Studiorum at the Nottingham University Art Gallery (1986) and Tate Britain (1996), for which she wrote the catalogue now regarded as the definitive text on the topic. Forrester is currently working on a major survey book on Turner’s prints. Her recent publications include an essay on Turner’s prints included in avolume on the artist edited by Ian Warrell (Yale Center for British Art, 2025), and an essay on the Liber Studiorum in Turner: In Light and Shade, edited by Imogen Holmes-Roe (The Whitworth, 2025). She is a Trustee of Turner’s House.
Nicola Moorby is Curator of British Art, 1790-1850 at Tate and guest curator of the exhibition, 'Turner's Kingdom: Beauty, Birds and Beasts' at Turner's House in Twickenham, April-October 2025. She is author of a new book, ‘Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape', published by Yale University Press
Venue: Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House
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