Every January, the Scottish National Gallery celebrates the art of Joseph Mallord William (J.M.W.) Turner. However, 2025 marks a special anniversary as it is the 250th birthday of the renowned artist. As part of the celebration, the Scottish National Gallery has done an exchange of Turner paintings with the National Gallery of Ireland. So, join us as we explore this special exhibition and commemorate the birthday of J.M.W. Turner!

For over a century, the National Galleries of Scotland has exhibited the works of Turner as part of a bequest (of 38 paintings) by Victorian collector, Henry Vaughan. Vaughan also bequeathed 31 Turner paintings to the National Gallery of Ireland. This year, the two galleries decided to do something special for the 250th birthday of Turner by exchanging their Vaughan collections.
According to the National Gallery of Scotland, as part of his bequests, Vaughan specified that Turner’s paintings were to only be put on display in January each year to protect the delicate watercolours (with January having the weakest daylight). Therefore, each January we love to visit the Gallery to see our own collection. However, this year we were excited to have the rare opportunity to see some Turner paintings that we hadn’t seen before.
Having just weathered the brutal winds of Storm Éowyn, we were eager to take in the majestic paintings of Turner that are often filled with light and colour. Of course, we weren’t going to completely escape the wild weather because Turner’s work is often characterised by stormy landscapes.

This post is just meant to cover some of the highlights of our visit to the Turner exhibition. If you would like more information on The National Gallery of Scotland, we’ve previously written about it, and you can check out that post later. For now, let’s head into the Gallery and explore a bit of Turner’s paintings that were part of Vaughan’s bequest to the National Gallery of Ireland.
As soon as I entered the gallery, an interesting artefact in the middle of the room caught my eye. It represented a curious difference when comparing the Scottish and Irish collections. According to the National Gallery, along with the 31 paintings Vaughan bequeathed to Ireland, he included the cabinet on display. The paintings are to be stored in the cabinet when not being exhibited in January. However, it doesn’t appear that Vaughan’s bequest to Scotland included a cabinet (although the Gallery points out that they store their paintings in a 19th century cabinet specifically made for that purpose).

Having waited for over an hour in the queue to see the paintings, we took our time making our way around the room- stopping to enjoy each painting. One watercolour and its title caught my eye, ‘The Great Fall of the Reichenbach, Switzerland’ (1802). The name of this Alpine waterfall might sound familiar as it was the setting for one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous stories, ‘The Final Problem’. In it, Sherlock Holmes faces off with his archnemesis, Professor Moriarty, at Reichenbach Falls.

Another highlight of the Irish collection is ironically a painting of Edinburgh titled, ‘Edinburgh from below Arthur’s Seat’ (1801). If you look at it carefully below, you can see how Turner beautifully uses the sunlight to spotlight Edinburgh Castle in the background.

Speaking of sunlight, two other Turner favourites of mine feature exquisite sunsets. The first is, ‘Ostend Harbour’ (about 1840), pictured below.

The second is ‘Passau, Germany, at the Confluence of the Rivers Inn and Danube’ (1840). A charming touch is the steamboat puffing smoke in the lower left of the painting (you can see a closeup below right).
Here are a few more of Turner’s paintings from Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest:
We hope you have enjoyed this wee virtual visit to ‘Turner in January: Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest’. Unfortunately, this exhibition is now over. However, starting next year, if you are in Edinburgh during the month of January, we highly recommend that you visit the Scottish National Gallery so that you can see Scotland’s collection of paintings by J.M.W. Turner. Of course, you should visit the National Gallery any time you are in town. After that, be sure to book one of our entertaining, historic walking tours of Edinburgh. Sami (our human tour guide) and Walter (our Golden Retriever tour guide) would love to show you around our beautiful capital city!
Until next time: Explore & Discover!