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JMW Turner in particular was known for making significant changes to works on varnishing day while his fellow Royal Academy of Art exhibitors were simply varnishing.

In the winter of 1835, Turner famously arrived at one varnishing day and proceeded to squeeze lumps of color onto a half-finished canvas.

In 19th-century England, for example, ‘Varnishing Day’ was traditionally the time when artists arrived at an exhibition to put the finishing touches on their works and seal them with a coat of varnish.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited the National Gallery on Varnishing Day, and in the film depicting this scene she proclaims his work “a yellow mess.”

Perry-Morton walked to the fireplace, laid his head sideways against a large blue plate, which gave him the appearance of a well-fed saint with an azure halo, closed his eyes like a vicious critic on varnishing day, and uttered a low sigh full of rapture, after which he seemed to bless his sisters for giving him a sensation that was perfectly new.