The director of the National Art Museum of China, Fan Di'an, had always wanted to see a J.M.W. (Joseph Mallord William) Turner show on the mainland. After all, the English painter was one of the first western artists the country learned about at the beginning of the 20th century, and his watercolours and landscapes have influenced generations of Chinese artists, he says.
The director's wish finally came true when the majority of the 280 oil paintings and thousands of watercolours and sketches that Turner bequeathed to Britain - some of which are kept at London's Tate Gallery - recently went on show for the first time in Asia at the National Art Museum of China.
Turner from the Tate Collection, which runs until the end of this month, is the result of a partnership between the two museums that was facilitated by the British Council in Beijing.
The exhibition, which is divided into five sections, showcases 112 pieces of art that follow Turner's career in a chronological sequence. It begins with an unusual Self-Portrait painted in 1799 that demonstrates Turner's ambitions from the start to rise above his humble origins as a London barber's son, join the Royal Academy of Art and emulate 17th-century masters such as Nicolas Poussin.
The second room reflects Turner's preoccupation with the Napoleonic wars that Britain waged with France at that time, including his masterpieces The Battle of Trafalgar (1806), depicting Admiral Nelson's death, and Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps (1812), an allusion to Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Italy by crossing the Alps in 1797.
Snow Storm is also considered a prime example of Turner's embrace of the Romantic movement, which exulted in people's relationship with the natural world.