Penetrating the intimacy of William Turner (1775 - 1851) is what the Jacquemart-André Museum proposes in this exhibition, which opened just before the start of the confinement in March. And by intimacy, we mean discovering some sixty watercolours on loan from the Tate Britain in London, which are as many stages in the painter's life. Supplemented by oil paintings, they reveal Turner's artistic and technical evolution in a chronological tour. From the works of his youth that he sent to the Royal Academy to the luminous and radical experiments of his maturity, watercolour plays a major role in his work. Turner's journey, fascinated by Rembrandt and Poussin, is extraordinary, passing in a few years from the status of a self-taught young painter to the daring artist with an exceptional technique guided by acute observation of the world around him. In addition to his works for sale, he kept a considerable body of work for himself, bequeathed to the British nation at his death. These sketches, more expressive and experimental because they were painted for his pleasure, are certainly closer to his true nature than those painted for the public. From his travels from Scarborough to Venice via Lausanne or Dinant, one thing stands out: the incredible modernity of this romantic. Fascinating!