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# J.M.W. Turner to Light Up the British £20 Note
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/j-m-w-turner-to-light-up-the-british-20-note/
- Published: 2016-04-26T18:11:04.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:58:20.000Z
- Description: J.M.W. Turner, the great English landscape painter who obsessed over light, will be featured on the new £20 banknote in the UK.
- Author: Allison Meier
- Tags: In Brief, Currency, J.M.W. Turner, JMW Turner, money, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:17 (2016, 2017, part 1)

![Concept for the J. M. W. Turner banknote (via Bank of England/Flickr)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/04/turnerbanknote.jpg)

Concept for the J. M. W. Turner banknote (via Bank of England/Flickr)

[J.M.W. Turner](http://hyperallergic.com/208107/j-m-w-turner-the-sublime-and-me/), the great English landscape painter who obsessed over light, will be featured on the new £20 banknote in the UK. The Bank of England made the [announcement last week](http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/news/2016/049.aspx?ref=hyperallergic.com); the selection follows [last year’s public call for nominations](http://hyperallergic.com/209443/which-artist-will-grace-englands-new-20-bill/) of deceased British artists.

![J. M. W. Turner, "Self-portrait" (1799), oil on canvas (via Tate Britain/Wikimedia)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/04/jmwturnerportrait.jpg)

J. M. W. Turner, “Self-portrait” (1799), oil on canvas (via Tate Britain/Wikimedia) (click to enlarge)

While not quite as thrilling as [indigenous genocide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail%5Fof%5FTears?ref=hyperallergic.com) leader Andrew Jackson’s recent [displacement from the front of the American $20 by Harriet Tubman](https://hyperallergic.com/harriet-tubman-bumps-slave-owning-andrew-jackson-off-front-of-20-bill/), Turner’s appearance on the bill is a significant milestone for recognizing cultural figures on currency. Hannah Ellis-Petersen reported for the [*Guardian*](http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/apr/22/jmw-turner-face-next-20-note-painter-british-banknote?ref=hyperallergic.com) that Turner is the first artist to be immortalized on a British banknote.

Arguably, that’s not entirely true, if you count the architect [Christopher Wren](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher%5FWren?ref=hyperallergic.com), who first appeared on the £50 note [in 1981](http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/BANKNOTES/Pages/withdrawn/default.aspx?ref=hyperallergic.com), but Turner is definitely the first visual artist. The Bank of England has featured historic figures on its banknotes [since 1970](http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/BANKNOTES/Pages/characters/default.aspx?ref=hyperallergic.com), although the opening up of the process to public nominations was only recently initiated. Along with Turner, Sir Winston Churchill will be added to the next £5 banknote, and Jane Austen to the next £10 banknote.

![J. M. W. Turner, "The Fighting Temeraire" (1839) (via National Gallery of Art/Wikimedia)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/04/turnerpainting01.jpg)

J. M. W. Turner, “The Fighting Temeraire” (1839) (via National Gallery of Art/Wikimedia)

Don’t get too excited to throw down Turners for your tea, though — the banknote isn’t planned for release until [2020](http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/news/2016/049.aspx?ref=hyperallergic.com). In the concept design, a young Turner in his 20s gazes out with a challenging, piercing stare, an image borrowed from his 1799 self-portrait (the forward pose, [by some accounts](http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/may/05/art?ref=hyperallergic.com), intended to disguise his rather large nose). In the background, replacing the dark setting of the self-portrait, is a glimpse of the ship and sunset in his 1839 painting “[The Fighting Temeraire](https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-fighting-temeraire?ref=hyperallergic.com).” At the bottom is a signature taken from Turner’s will, with a quote — “Light is therefore colour” — from [an 1818 lecture](https://books.google.com/books?id=OhRtJZZLoGoC&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136&dq=%22light+is+therefore+colour%22&source=bl&ots=sMYHOwNUR0&sig=mapnyaNuWFRzKSbamHO30P%5F7VO4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJz83iyKzMAhUE2D4KHfeyB6AQ6AEISzAJ#v=onepage&q=%22light%20is%20therefore%20colour%22&f=false). It was that ongoing interest in light which made him not only a significant Romantic landscape painter, but also an inspiration to the Impressionists who followed and the modernism that was born from their work.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney explained in [a release](http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/news/2016/049.aspx?ref=hyperallergic.com) that Turner was selected because he “is perhaps the single most influential British artist of all time.” In a video from the bank below, you can hear more about the selection process, including mention of the contenders who weren’t picked this round, such as [Jane Drew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane%5FDrew?ref=hyperallergic.com), [Josiah Wedgwood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah%5FWedgwood?ref=hyperallergic.com), [Barbara Hepworth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara%5FHepworth?ref=hyperallergic.com), [William Hogarth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William%5FHogarth?ref=hyperallergic.com), and [Alfred Hitchcock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred%5FHitchcock?ref=hyperallergic.com).