william turner short biography

J.M.W. Turner

(1775-1851)

Who Was J.M.W. Turner?

A sickly child, J.M.W. Turner was sent to live with his uncle in rural England, and it was during this period that he began his artistic career. As a landscape painter, Turner brought luminosity and Romantic imagery to his subjects. His work—initially realistic—became more fluid and poetic, and is now regarded as a predecessor to Impressionism.

Early Years

Joseph Mallord William Turner was born circa April 23, 1775, in Covent Garden, London, England. His father, a wig-maker and barber, supported the family through his wife’s struggles with mental illness, a condition worsened by the death of Turner’s younger sister in 1786.

Turner was sent to live with an uncle in nearby Brentford in 1785 but returned to Covent Garden by the end of the decade. Although he received little formal schooling, Turner was clearly a talented artist, and by age 13 he was selling drawings that were featured at his father's shop. The Royal Academy of Arts admitted Turner in late 1789, and the following year he was given the chance to display his work in the Royal Academy Exhibition.

Artistic Innovation and Success

In 1793, the Royal Society of Arts awarded the 17-year-old the “Great Silver Pallet” for landscape drawing. Turner soon earned a steady income through a variety of artistic endeavors, including selling designs to engravers, coloring sketches and providing private lessons. Among the artists who influenced his works during this period were Thomas Gainsborough, Henry Fuseli, Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, Michael Angelo Rooker and Richard Wilson.

Turner began traveling through Europe extensively and was particularly inspired by his visits to Venice. His initial efforts reflected his training as a topographic draftsman and resulted in realistic depictions of landscapes, but over the years he developed his own style. Known as the “Painter of Light,” he created scenes of luminous imagery using brilliant colors. His works -- watercolors, oil paintings and engravings -- are now regarded as a predecessor to Impressionism.

In 1807, Turner accepted a position as professor of perspective at the Royal Academy, where he lectured until 1828. He grew increasingly eccentric and secretive, avoiding contact with virtually everyone except for his father, and was embittered when Queen Victoria passed him over for knighthood. Turner continued to hold exhibitions but begrudgingly sold his paintings, the loss of each one catapulting him into a prolonged state of dejection.

Despite his unusual behavior, Turner continued to produce great works of art. Though he is best known for his oil paints, he is also considered one of the founders of English watercolor landscape painting. His famous works include Dido Building Carthage (1815), The Grand Canal, Venice (1835), Peace - Burial at Sea (1842) and Rain, Steam and Speed (1844).

Turner exhibited his works for the last time in 1850. He produced thousands of pieces over the course of his career; approximately 2,000 paintings became the property of private collectors, while another 19,000 drawings and sketches and nearly 300 finished and unfinished oil paintings were left behind at two studios

Personal Life and Death

Although Turner never married, he fathered two daughters, Eveline and Georgiana. Their mother was assumed to be Mrs. Sarah Danby, the widow of a London composer. However, many believed the children’s mother was actually Mrs. Danby’s niece, Hannah, who was employed by Turner as a housekeeper.

The artist died on December 19, 1851, in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, England. His will allocated generous sums to Hannah Danby and to programs to support what he called "decaying artists," although relatives successfully contested the funding of those programs through litigation. Turner also bequeathed a large collection of paintings to his country, and at his request, he was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: J.M.W. Turner
• Birth Year: 1775
• Birth date: April 23, 1775
• Birth City: London, England
• Birth Country: United Kingdom
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: J.M.W. Turner was a British landscape painter of the 18th and 19th centuries whose work is known for its luminous, almost abstract quality.
• Astrological Sign: Taurus
• Royal Academy
• Death Year: 1851
• Death date: December 19, 1851
• Death City: London, England
• Death Country: United Kingdom

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: J.M.W. Turner Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/artists/jmw-turner
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: May 21, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

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Joseph Mallord William Turner

British Painter

Summary of Joseph Mallord William Turner

Turner took classical genres and scenes - the stately landscape in well-designed compositions and historical events writ large - and infused them with a new dynamic in painting. He reflected on the increasing importance of individual experience in the era of the Enlightenment, where the perceptions of human beings led to exalted personal moments and sublime interactions with nature. Through this dedication to rendering heightened states of consciousness and being, he helped define the cross-disciplinary artistic movement of Romanticism , setting the stage for later developments in painting subjective experiences that would lead to Impressionism . In some of his later works especially, Turner responded to the arrival of the modern era by making the contraptions of human invention powerfully, sometimes threateningly present.

Accomplishments

• Striving for greater subjective effects, he ignored and even exploded the precise rendering of details and static scenes that previous generations' masters and his peers still pursued. Instead he developed painterly effects to render perceptions from closely observed nature, resulting in swirling clouds of varied light and bold arrays of color dabbed in oil. Many of these techniques in paint to evoke sensations of the "Sublime" would become the substance and subject matter of the generation of painters working in Abstract Expressionism .
• The subjects chosen for many of his paintings emphasized the power of nature in a way that had not previously been depicted - making the human figure and all that civilization had built seem minuscule and fragile in comparison.
• Turner helped establish landscape painting - and especially its water-based corollary, seascapes - as an artistic genre for greater respect and exploration, compared to what had existed before or during his own time.
• Turner also incorporated novel motifs from the modern industrial era into his paintings - steamships and railway trains figuring prominently - foreshadowing a recurrent fascination with these elements of modern life that would figure in later generations of visual artists - from the Futurists , muralists such as Diego Rivera to contemporary artists such as Matthew Barney .

Important Art by Joseph Mallord William Turner

Dutch Boats in a Gale ('The Bridgewater Sea Piece')

Dutch Boats in a Gale was commissioned by the third Duke of Bridgewater as a companion piece for a 17 th -century seascape, Ships on a Stormy Sea by Willem van de Velde the Younger. In this painting, Turner shows ominous clouds and a stormy sea with boats struggling on the rough water. In contrast to the companion piece, Turner's boats look doomed to collide, conveying a sense of danger. This piece from 1801 is evidence of the influence of Dutch painters on Turner's early work but already with the sort of turbulence featured in it that became one of Turner's hallmarks.

Oil on Canvas - The National Gallery, London

Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps

In this painting, Turner depicts Hannibal's soldiers in their struggle to cross the Alps in 218BC. There is a curved arch of black storm clouds hovering over the soldiers with a golden sun peeking through the grayness. In the foreground, the soldiers are fighting local tribes in the murky darkness, while ahead in the distance the plains of Italy are bathed in sunlight. At the right is an avalanche of snow descending down the mountain. Hannibal's location is not clear, but he may be riding the elephant barely visible in the distance. Turner created this painting during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and France. He saw parallels between Hannibal and Napoleon, and this painting is his response to Jacques-Louis David's portrait of Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801-1805). This work is the first painting where Turner uses a swirling vortex of wind, rain, snow and clouds that he returned to often in later works, such as Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth (1842). His ongoing investigations of light and atmosphere greatly influenced future Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, such as Monet and Pissarro.

Oil on Canvas - Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom

The Burning of the Houses of Parliament

In 1834 a fire engulfed the Houses of Parliament and burned for hours while Londoners watched the horrifying event. Turner made a series of sketches, watercolors, and oil paintings of the spectacle from the viewpoint of the Thames River. This watercolor and gouache on paper shows a closer view of the fire and those gathered to watch. Turner uses color to convey the magnificent light and heat: as much the subject of the painting, as the event of the burning building itself. This favoring of the elemental aspects of the conflagration, as well as the fire itself, embodies one of Turner's favored themes as well: the puniness and ephemerality of man's efforts in the face of nature.

Watercolor and gouache on paper - Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom

The Fighting Temeraire Tugged To Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up

In The Fighting Temeraire , Turner depicts a once powerful and magnificent warship being towed to its final destination to be broken up for scraps. In the painting, the ship appears like a ghost in the background being towed by a small, dark, steam-powered tugboat. The sails of the other vessels in the background form a triangle within a larger triangle of blue sky. Behind the Temeraire , the sun is setting and the moon casts a beam across the river. This painting symbolizes the end of an era, the end of heroic power, and the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Steam-powered vessels were taking the place of the large sailing vessels of the past. It is suggested that the ship may also symbolize Turner himself as he contemplated his accomplishments of the past, his mortality, and saw new artists being recognized. Turner took some liberties in portraying this event, for example the Temeraire did not have its masts intact when it was towed. He wanted to portray her in her former majestic state and so included them in the painting. His revision of details demonstrated a liberation from "just facts" that was an innovation inspiring future modern painters to feel freer in their interpretations of depicted scenes.

Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On)

In this painting, Turner shows a ship in the background moving through a tumultuous sea, and in the foreground, in the ship's wake, dark-skinned bodies with chains on their legs, while hovering nearby are fish and sea creatures looking dangerously ready to devour them. Turner based this painting on a poem that described the Zong , a slave ship caught in a typhoon, and the true story of that ship in 1781, when its captain ordered 133 sick and dying slaves thrown overboard so that he could collect the insurance money. Turner timed the exhibition of this painting to coincide with the meeting of the British Anti-Slavery Society. Although the British Empire had outlawed slavery in 1833, Turner believed slavery should be outlawed throughout the world, and his hope was that Prince Albert would be moved to increase anti-slavery efforts when he viewed the painting. Alongside the painting, Turner displayed lines from his unfinished poem, "Fallacies of Hope": "Aloft all hands, strike the top-masts and belay; Yon angry setting sun and fierce-edged clouds Declare the Typhon's coming. Before it sweeps your decks, throw overboard The dead and dying - ne'er heed their chains Hope, Hope, fallacious Hope! Where is thy market now?" John Ruskin, the first owner of Slave Ship , wrote, "If I were reduced to rest Turner's immortality upon any single work, I should choose this."

Oil on Canvas - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Light and Color (Goethe's Theory) - the Morning after the Deluge - Moses Writing the Book of Genesis

The unusual square shape of this late painting, with even dimensions on all sides, indicates neither the conventional orientation for the genre of either landscape or portraiture, further channeling the subjective experience by focusing the viewer's gaze into the center of a sort of elemental vortex. The primary figures - Moses and a serpent - are represented hazily amid the sort of seemingly formless fields of color and light that critics who were contemporaries of Turner often objected to in his later works. Meanwhile the relative brightness of Turner's palette in this moody work hints at darker aspects that might be apprehended from the Biblical story of redemption after the trial of the flood. This is associated with the sub-title of the piece - where the potential feeling of triumph or relief for those who survive such catastrophes is mixed with an awareness that the same dark forces may produce a new crisis at any time in the future. Turner uses his own treatment of the phenomenon of color and light to represent a version of the Biblical tale as seen through a perceptual filter related to Goethe's psychological and philosophical account of the way humans actually experience color as a phenomenon. Through this combination Turner furthers a Romantic update of both the classical Bible story and the work of Goethe - another exemplar of latter day Classicism and prototypical instigator of Romantic notions - in the generation leading up to Turner's own time.

Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway

This painting depicts a steam-powered train speeding across a modern bridge away from London. In the distance is an older bridge and in the lower right is a small hare. Some suggest that the hare is not only one of nature's symbols of speed, but that Turner is warning us of the dangers of technology destroying nature in its race toward progress. The only highly detailed section in the painting is the smoke stack of the train, showing Turner's ability to create provocative paintings with very little detail.

Biography of Joseph Mallord William Turner

Childhood and education.

Joseph Mallord William Turner's actual birthdate is unconfirmed, but he was baptized on May 14, 1775. His father, William Turner was a barber and wig maker and his mother, Mary Marshall, came from a family of butchers. His younger sister, Mary Ann, was born in September 1778, but died when she was 5 years old.

At the age of ten, due to his mother's signs of mental instability, Turner was sent to live with an uncle in Brentford, Middlesex, a small town on the banks of the Thames, to the west of London. In Brentford, Turner began his artistic activities by coloring a series of engraved plates. Later, in 1786, he was sent to Margate where he attended school and also began to draw the town and surrounding area. Back in London, his father exhibited these drawings in his shop and sold them for a few shillings each. Sketching the town and countryside and later creating finished paintings from location sketches would become his working style throughout his career. Although he lived in different areas around London and later traveled widely, he remained a Londoner throughout his life and never lost his Cockney accent. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Turner did not adopt an elitist air as he climbed the professional ladder. In contrast, John Constable famously jockeyed for position in terms of social status and by literally contriving to displace a Turner painting in one exhibition at the Royal Academy with one of his own. Though Turner spent time in the society of noble patrons, he preferred to frequent his humbler residences in Chelsea and the fishing village of Margate, even later in life, while also sojourning ceaselessly in the country and seaside in pursuit of striking subjects out in the natural world.

Early Period

Early in Turner's career, he created architectural studies for several architects and later worked with a topographical draughtsman. As a result, many of his early drawings and watercolors included architectural subjects. At the age of 14, he entered the prestigious Royal Academy of Art, and was accepted as an Academy member a year later. Founded by an act of King George III in 1768, the Academy was an important broker of taste as well as a crucial node in the network of possible sales and commissioning - especially from the Royal Family and nobility - for its artist members. Although he was interested in architecture, he was advised by the architect Thomas Hardwick to continue painting. During this period, Turner produced watercolors that were exhibited every year at the Academy. His routine was to paint in the winter and travel in the summer throughout England and Wales. In 1796, he exhibited his first oil painting, Fishermen at Sea at the Royal Academy. It was a nocturnal moonlit scene, the type of nighttime painting that was popular at the time. He was praised for this piece, and it established him as both an oil painter and a portrayer of maritime scenes.

In 1799, at the age of 24, Turner was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. At this time, he painted a flattering self-portrait, indicating his belief that he had "arrived." In 1802 he became a full academician. Further recognition came in 1807, at the age of 32, when he was appointed professor of perspective. By 1800, he was already financially prosperous and moved to a better address in London, Harley Street, where he shared a flat with J.T. Serres, an older marine painter. In 1804, he opened a gallery on Harley and Queen Anne Street to exhibit his work.

He expanded his travels to the European continent in 1802, visiting France and Switzerland. A group of noblemen sponsored this trip, and he was provided with a French-speaking guide and a small coach. He documented the trip with his painting, Calais Pier (1802-3) and made more than 400 drawings during this journey.

Mature Period

In his early paintings Turner attempted to master other styles he admired, such as the realistic, orderly pictorial techniques of Willem van der Velde and Claude Lorrain, but by 1805 his oil sketches and paintings such as The Shipwreck demonstrated his own original approach to landscapes and seascapes. By his late 30s, his work became increasingly atmospheric and luminous. In paintings such as Snowstorm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (1812), he started to focus his efforts on portraying the power of nature and man's insignificance in the face of it, while creating a historical rendering. In addition to painting, Turner was interested in poetry, especially Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore and John Milton, and he wrote his own poetry as well, including an unfinished and unpublished work, Fallacies of Hope , in 1812. Much later, when Turner exhibited Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On) (1840) at the Royal Academy, he included excerpts of his poetry alongside the painting.

With the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Turner was able to travel abroad again. In the summer of 1819, he made his first trip to Italy, visiting Rome, Naples, Florence, and Venice. During this time, he made about 1,500 drawings from which he developed several paintings. These paintings, such as The Grand Canal, Venice (1835) show a change in how he used color - with many transparent layers, warm and cool colors creating form, and, more generally, a bolder range.

Turner was very private about his personal life, and he became more eccentric as he grew older. He had few close friends, but was very close with his father who lived with him for 30 years and worked as his studio assistant, cook and gardener. His mother had died in 1804, probably in the mental hospital in Bethlem. After his father died in 1829, Turner suffered bouts of depression. Although he never married, he had two daughters, Eveline and Georgianna, with an older widow, Sarah Danby. Turner wrote in one of his sketchbooks that "Woman is doubtful love" and there is some evidence that the actual mother of his daughters was Sarah Danby's niece who was his housekeeper for a period of time. Later, he had a relationship with Sophia Caroline Booth, living as 'Mr. Booth' in her house in Chelsea.

Late Period

Turner continued to travel in his later years, visiting Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Denmark and Czechoslovakia. He sketched tirelessly, and his bequest included approximately 19,000 sketches from these travels. His paintings became more fluid and atmospheric with minimal details. Some examples during this period include The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up (1839) and Rain, Steam, and Speed - the Great Western Railway (1844). These paintings expressed Turner's response to the changes being introduced by the Industrial Revolution. Turner's innovative style in these later paintings was criticized publicly, and John Ruskin , an English art critic and long-time supporter of Turner's work, defended him by publishing Modern Painters (1843-60). Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy for the last time in 1850.

The Legacy of Joseph Mallord William Turner

Turner died in Cheyne Walk in Chelsea on December 19, 1851, and he is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. He left most of his fortune to found a charity for "decayed artists," and he bequeathed his finished paintings to the National Gallery. As a result of litigation by relatives much of the fortune was inherited by them and both the finished and unfinished paintings became national property as a group under the name The Turner Bequest . Most of Turner's paintings are now housed in the Tate Britain with several important works held by the National Gallery. In 1984, the Tate Britain created the prestigious Turner Prize art award, and in 2005, Turner's The Fighting Temeraire was voted Britain's "greatest painting" in a BBC public poll.

Among painters, Turner's impact has been felt for more than two centuries now: his representation of the confrontation humans experienced upon encountering the effects of their own machine inventions in the modern era was an early attempt to engage with the world-changing Industrial Revolution. Even more influential was his mode of representation: impressionistic renderings of the effects of nature that expressed inner psychological states to the point of extreme, extraordinarily early abstraction - to a degree that would only be engaged with again as fully by painters more than a century later.

Turner's work, especially his late work, was deeply admired by the abstract painter Mark Rothko . One can see the influence in Rothko's large canvases of subtly shifting layers of color. In 1966 when Rothko saw an exhibition of Turners in a show sub-titled Imagination and Reality at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he was quoted as saying, "This guy Turner, he learnt a lot from me." The radical nature of Turner's engagement with issues that were not only ahead of its time but still relevant in the contemporary moment was shown by this rare embrace of the work of a pre-modern master by a museum dedicated to modern art. In 2009, the Tate Britain displayed a selection of Turners in a room opposite another dedicated to six Rothko paintings, allowing visitors to compare the "striking affinity" between the two artists' work.

Furthermore, Turner's investigations of color and light inspired the contemporary Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson to create a series of color experiments, each inspired by a different Turner painting. Eliasson states, "I have carefully dissected the amount of color tones, darkness and brightness in a group of Turner paintings, and then made a kind of 'color chart portrait' of each one, using the exact same colors and amount of light and darkness."

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Joseph Mallord William Turner

• J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free Our Pick By David Blayney Brown, Amy Concannon, Sam Smiles
• Standing in the Sun: A Life of J.M.W. Turner By Anthony Bailey
• The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., 2 nd ed., 1961 By A.J. Finberg, H.F. Finberg
• Tate Collection Our Pick
• The National Gallery
• The Turner Society
• Tate's JMW Turner Blockbuster Dazzles By Lorena Munoz-Alonso / ARTNet News ARTWORLD / September 9, 2014
• Late Turner at Tate Britain review - an exciting, entrancing show By Jonathan Jones / The Guardian / September 8, 2014
• How JMW Turner Set Painting Free Our Pick By Alastair Sooke / BBC / October 21, 2014
• Rothko and Turner receive joint billing at Tate for first time Our Pick By Stephen Adams / The Telegraph / March 23, 2009
• Mr. Turner Mike Leigh, 2014

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Content compiled and written by The Art Story Contributors

Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors

William Turner – The Life and Romantic Works of J. M. W. Turner

Romantic painter Joseph Mallord William Turner, also known as J. M. W. Turner or William Turner, was a famous British watercolor artist. He meditated on the rising significance of personal experiences in the Enlightenment age when human perception led to elevated personal experiences and exquisite relationships with nature, and in doing so, Turner’s landscapes were imbued with new vitality. William Turner’s paintings helped establish the cross-disciplinary creative style of Romanticism, laying the groundwork for later breakthroughs in portraying subjective sensations that would culminate in Impressionism.

Table of Contents

• 1.1 Childhood and Education
• 1.2 Early Period
• 1.3 Mature Period
• 1.4 Late Period
• 2.1 Dutch Boats on a Gale (1801)
• 2.2 Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (1812)
• 2.3 The Burning of the Houses of Parliament (1834)
• 2.4 The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up (1839)
• 2.5 Slave Ship (1840)
• 2.6 Light and Color (Goethe’s Theory) (1843)
• 2.7 Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway (1844)
• 3.1 J. M. W. Turner (2007) by Ian Warrell
• 3.2 Turner Watercolors (2020) by David Blayney Brown
• 4.1 Who Was William Turner?
• 4.2 What Was William Turner Famous For?

A William Turner Biography

J. M. W. Turner neglected and even shattered the accurate portrayal of details and motionless situations that preceding generations’ masters and contemporaries still attempted in pursuit of larger subjective effects. Rather, he experimented with artistic approaches to depict sensations from a carefully observed environment, culminating in whirling masses of varying light and strong palettes of color splattered in oil.

Several of these painting approaches for producing “exquisite” feelings would become the substance and theme of the Abstract Expressionist era.

Many of William Turner’s paintings highlighted the force of nature in ways that had not hitherto been shown, making the human figure and everything that society had constructed appear microscopic and frail in contrast.

Childhood and Education

Joseph Mallord William Turner was sent to reside with an uncle in a tiny rural town of Brentford when he was ten years old, owing to his mother’s indications of psychological instability. Turner started his creative endeavors there in Brentford by coloring a series of etched plates. He was transferred to Margate in 1786, where he attended school and began painting the village and its environment.

Throughout his career, he would depict the village and its surroundings and then use those sketches to produce finished works.

Despite living in several parts of London and then traveling extensively, he stayed a Londoner all through his lifetime. J. M. W. Turner, unlike many of his colleagues, did not acquire an elitist demeanor as he ascended the career hierarchy. In comparison, John Constable notoriously jousted for rank in terms of social standing, practically displacing a Turner work in a Royal Academy exhibit for a piece of his own work.

Despite spending time in the company of noble clients, Turner chose to visit his humbler mansions in Chelsea and the fishing resort of Margate, even later in life, while also residing constantly in the country and beach in search of striking themes out in nature.

Early Period

Turner began his career by creating architectural studies for numerous architects and eventually collaborated with a topographical draftsman. As a result, architectural elements may be found in many of his early paintings and sketches. He attended the elite Royal Academy of Art aged 14 and was approved as a fellow a year later. The Academy, founded in 1768 by an order of King George III, was an important style mediator as well as a significant center in the network of potential purchases and orders – mainly from the Royal Family and nobility – for its artistic participants.

Despite his passion for architecture, Thomas Hardwick recommended that he pursue painting. In the winters, he painted, and in the summertime, he traveled around England and Wales. In 1796, William Turner’s very first art piece, Fishermen at Sea , was displayed at the Royal Academy.

It was a moonlit night time moonlight scene, which was a prominent type of painting at the time. He was recognized for this work, which defined him as an oil painter as well as a depicter of nautical landscapes. He painted a favorable self-portrait at this period, expressing his opinion that he had “arrived.” In 1802 he was elevated to the rank of full academician.

He rose to prominence in 1807, at the age of 32, when he was appointed professor of perspective.

By 1800, he had become financially secure and had relocated to a superior address in London. In order to exhibit his works, he established a gallery in 1804. In 1802, he expanded his travels to Europe, visiting France and Switzerland. A group of aristocrats funded this excursion, and he was provided with a French-speaking interpreter and a modest bus. He chronicled the expedition in his artwork, Calais Pier (1801), and did over 400 sketches throughout the trip.

Mature Period

Turner tried to perfect other genres he lauded in his early works of art, such as the lifelike, organized pictorial methods of Claude Lorrain and Willem van der Velde, but by 1805, his oil drawings and works of art such as The Shipwreck illustrated his own unique methodology to landscapes and coastlines. By his late 30s, his art had become more ethereal and brilliant.

In works like Snowstorm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (1812), he began to concentrate his energies on depicting the forces of nature and man’s frailty in the presence of it, while also providing a historical portrayal.

Turner was fascinated in poetry, particularly that of Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, Walter Scott, and John Milton, and he composed his own poetry, notably an incomplete and unreleased piece, “Fallacies of Hope”, in 1812.

Turner was given permission to travel abroad again after the Napoleonic Wars finished in 1815. He took his first voyage to Italy in the summer of 1819, seeing Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice. During this period, he created over 1,500 sketches from which he created many paintings.

These paintings, such as The Grand Canal, Venice (1835), show a change in his color usage, with several transparent layers, warm colors and cool colors forming structure, and a wider range in general. Turner was extremely secretive about his personal affairs, and as he got older, he grew quirkier. He had few close acquaintances, but his father, who resided with him for 30 years and served as his workshop helper, chef, and gardener, was his closest companion.

His mother died in 1804, most likely at a mental institution in Bethlehem. Turner suffered from despair when his father died in 1829. Although he never wedded, he did have a couple of offspring with Sarah Danby. In one of his art books, Turner wrote, “Woman is questionable love,” and there is the possibility that the real mother of his children was Sarah Danby’s niece, who worked as his domestic for a spell.

Late Period

In his final years, Turner traveled continuously, visiting Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, and Czechoslovakia. He drew often during his travels, and his gift included roughly 19,000 sketches from his trips. William Turner’s paintings began to become more flowing and ethereal, with fewer features . Train, Steam, and Speed – the Great Western Railway is a prominent illustration from this time period (1844).

These artworks depict Turner’s response to the transformations set about by the Industrial Revolution. Turner’s inventive approach in his later paintings was widely challenged, an English art critic and long-time fan of the Romantic painter, John Ruskin, defended him in his book Modern Painters (1843-1860).

Joseph Mallord William Turner passed away on the 19th of December, 1851. He committed the most of his income to a foundation for “decayed painters,” and he gifted his completed works to the National Gallery. The family acquired a large portion of the money as a result of the case, and both the finalized and incomplete works became public property.

The bulk of William Turner’s paintings are now housed in the Tate Britain, with the National Gallery owning a few of noteworthy works.

J. M. W. Turner’s effect on artists has been felt for more than two hundred years: his representation of the divided humanity met when presented with the consequences of their own mechanical inventions in the modern age was an initial effort to cope with the Industrial Revolution. Even more powerful was his manner of representation: impressionistic depictions of natural events that reflected interior psychological sentiments to the point of extreme, exceptionally early abstraction – to a level that artists would only deal with as completely more than a hundred years later.

Turner’s landscapes, particularly his later work, were highly regarded by abstract painter Mark Rothko . Rothko’s enormous paintings with delicately shifting layers of color show the impact. Rothko was quoted as remarking, “This man Turner, he learned a lot from me.”

This remarkable reception of a pre-modern master’s work by a museum devoted to modern art demonstrated the radical character of Turner’s involvement with topics that were not just ahead of their time but are still pertinent today. Turner’s previous experiments with light and color also motivated the emerging artist Olafur Eliasson to develop a sequence of color experimental tests, each influenced by a distinct Turner artwork.

“I painstakingly analysed the quantity of color tones, darkness, and brilliance in a set of Turner works, and then constructed a type of ‘color chart portraiture’ of each one, using the precise same colors and quantity of light and darkness,” Eliasson says.

William Turner Paintings

Turner’s painting technique evolved noticeably during his lengthy career as an artist. While his early work focused on the landscape style, as his career evolved, he started to devote less attention to the intricacies of items and landscape and more emphasis to the impact of light and color. He got more and more captivated by natural and atmospheric components.

Turner, on the other hand, was a careful observer and recorder of his surroundings as a young artist.

Many of his paintings emphasized nature’s strength in novel ways, making the human form and all humanity had made look small and fragile in comparison. Turner also integrated unique themes from the industrial era into his works of art, with railway trains and steamships prominently featured, foreshadowing a recurring fascination with these components of modern life that would figure in subsequent generations of creatives.

Dutch Boats on a Gale (1801)

This artwork was requested by the third Duke of Bridgewater as a counterpart piece to Willem van de Velde the Younger’s 17th-century seascape, Ships on a Stormy Sea. Turner depicts dark skies and a turbulent sea with boats straining on the choppy water in this artwork. Turner’s vessels, in contrast to the companion piece, seem like they are about to collide, evoking a sense of impending danger. This 1801 picture exhibits the impact of Dutch painters on Turner’s early efforts, but it also has the instability that became one of Turner’s signature characteristics.

Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (1812)

Turner shows Hannibal’s forces attempting to traverse the Alps in 218BC in this picture. A curving arch of dark clouds hovers above the warriors, with a brilliant sun shining through the gloom. Soldiers battle indigenous tribes in the foreground in the gloomy darkness, while the Italian fields beyond are drenched in sunshine. An avalanche of snow is sliding the mountain to the right. Hannibal’s exact location is unknown; however, he may be charging on the elephant in the distance.

During the war between France and Britain, Turner made this picture.

He recognized connections between Napoleon and Hannibal and created this picture in reaction to Jacques-Louis David’s portrayal of Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1805). This is the first picture in which Turner used a whirling vortex of winds, rainfall, snow, and clouds, a technique he used frequently in later works. His continual studies of lighting and atmosphere had a significant impact on subsequent Impressionists and Post-Impressionists such as Pissarro and Monet.

The Burning of the Houses of Parliament (1834)

In 1834, a fire consumed the Houses of Parliament and burnt for hours while Londoners looked on in horror. Turner captured the panorama from the Thames River in a sequence of drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings.

This watercolor and gouache on paper painting depicts a closer look at the fire and individuals gathering to observe it.

Turner employs color to portray the amazing light and heat that is as much the focus of the picture as the burning structure itself. Turner’s choice for the conflagration’s elemental aspects, as well as the fire itself, reflects another of his favorite topics: the relative unimportance and insignificance of man’s achievements in the face of nature.

The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up (1839)

Turner shows a once-mighty and majestic cruiser being pulled to its demise, where it will be cut up for scrap. The ship appears in the artwork as a ghost in the backdrop, being towed by a little, black, steam-powered tugboat. The surviving vessels’ sails form a triangle within a larger triangle of blue sky in the background. The sun is setting behind the Temeraire, and the moon is illuminating the river.

This picture represents the end of an age, the decline of heroic power, and the arrival of the Industrial Revolution.

Steam-powered boats were gradually replacing huge sailing vessels. It has been believed that the ship represents Turner himself as he reflected on his past successes, his mortality, and watched younger artists getting noticed. Turner took various liberties in depicting this incident; for example, the Temeraire’s masts were not unbroken when it was towed. He wanted to depict her in her former majesty, therefore he incorporated them in the picture.

His modification of details revealed a release from “simply facts,” which inspired subsequent contemporary artists to feel freer in their interpretations of presented settings.

Slave Ship (1840)

Turner depicts a ship in the backdrop sailing over a stormy sea, and in the foreground, in the wake of the vessel, individuals with shackles on their legs, while fish and ocean animals hover around, seeming dangerously ready to consume them. Turner based this picture on a poem about the Zong , a slave ship stranded in a storm.

The real tragedy of that ship took place in 1781, when its commander ordered 133 sick and suffering slaves tossed overboard in order to claim the insurance payout.

Turner arranged the display of this artwork to correspond with the British Anti-Slavery Society’s conference. Even though the British Empire had abolished slavery in 1833, Turner felt it should be abolished worldwide, and he hoped that when Prince Albert saw the artwork, he would be spurred to intensify anti-slavery activities.

Light and Color (Goethe’s Theory) (1843)

The odd shape of this latter work, with even proportions on all sides, implies neither the traditional orientation for the genres of landscape nor portrait, directing the conscious experience further by concentrating the audience’s sight into the core of a type of elemental maelstrom. The main characters – Moses and a snake – are shown hazily among the type of apparently shapeless fields of light and color that Turner’s peers frequently criticized in his later works.

Meanwhile, the comparative brilliance of Turner’s colors in this melancholy piece alludes to darker parts of the Biblical theme of salvation following the flood.

This is related to the piece’s subtitle, in which the possible sense of triumph or relief for people who escape such disasters is mingled with the knowledge that the very same sinister forces may generate a new crisis at any point in the future. Turner is a rendition of the Biblical story as seen via a perceptual filter connected to Goethe’s mental and theoretical interpretation of how people truly see color as a phenomenon.

Turner advances a Romantic updating of both the traditional Biblical account and the works of Goethe – another instance of later-day Classicism and archetypal initiator of Romantic conceptions – in the age preceding Turner’s own.

Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway (1844)

Turner’s artwork depicts a train approaching in the countryside during a summer thunderstorm. The train in the middle is gloomy and rain-shrouded, flanked on both sides by a brilliant natural environment. The bridge and train, the painting’s concrete features, are, however, scarcely hinted at, vanishing into the misty and surreal environment.

The mist coming from the lake, the rain obscuring the sky, and the steam from the train are all blurred and combined together, uniting the colors in the picture.

On the lower-left corner of the picture, a small person in a boat can be seen, suggesting that the overpass is erected on top of a river. In the lower right corner of the painting, a rabbit rushes down the rail. White plumes of steam rise in the air by the engine, indicating that the train is moving. The first puff, which is nearest to the motor, is the most obvious, while the other two recede into the background. As the puffs are gradually left behind, this detail gives the impression of speed.

Turner painted a multitude of waving persons in the train’s cabin, serving as a message that the railway was a cheerful and popular amusement. Turner typically used an ambient tone in his creative works by applying paint to the canvas in short, sweeping brushstrokes from a dirty palette and gradually sculpting shapes out of his color foundation.

Turner utilized a heavy impasto with a palette knife in the painting’s center and upper right. To represent rain, he slapped a muddy putty on the panel with a trowel, while the sun glinted from large, smeary pieces of chrome yellow. Turner also used cool crimson lake tones to convey the shadow, and while the flame in the steam locomotive seems red, it was most likely made with green and cobalt.

The picture is structurally sound, with a well-balanced arrangement of shapes and a sturdy mathematical foundation.

Recommended Reading

Romantic painter Joseph Mallord William Turner was known for his landscape and seascape artworks. Our William Turner Biography serves as a great introduction to Turner’s landscapes and life. But perhaps you would like to learn even more about this famous watercolor artist . Check out these books on J. M. W. Turner if you are interested. 

J. M. W. Turner (2007) by Ian Warrell

J. M. W. Turner, which is accompanied by the largest exhibition of his work ever presented in the United States, demonstrates how Turner’s groundbreaking portrayals of illumination, hue, and ambiance in the scenery, blended with his knowledge of the transcendent in nature, elevated him to the ranks of the most renowned and acutely studied European painters in the world. Landscape paintings were seen as the art form most directly associated with the newly independent state’s identity, and Turner’s magnificent works functioned as a template for a new school of American artists.

• Accompanying the largest exhibition of Turner's work ever presented
• How the artist is among the most acclaimed artists in the New World
• Discusses how Turner provided a foundational model for US artists

Turner Watercolors (2020) by David Blayney Brown

Few can deny that J. M. W. Turner was the most prominent exponent of British watercolor throughout its golden period. He was a frequent traveler in pursuit of the perfect scenery, and he never left the house without a loose-bound notebook, pencils, and a little carrying bag of paints in his pocket. He used the medium’s brilliance and transparency like no one before him, creating illumination on Venetian lagoons and English meadows, as well as billowy clouds over lakes and mountains. He was exceptional in his own time, and he has continued to amaze his legions of fans ever since.

• About the greatest exponent of British watercolor in its golden age
• Written by one of the world's leading experts on Turner
• Reveals the role watercolors played in Turner's life and works

J. M. W. Turner, widely recognized as one of the finest personalities in art history , had a significant impact on the formation of Impressionism. What is less well recognized is that his impact extended well beyond Europe and served as a model for American painters.  Turner is regarded as the first modern artist because his untidy, expressive technique and vibrant colors influenced many contemporary painters.

Take a look at our J.M.W. Turner paintings webstory here!

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was william turner.

Watercolor artist William Turner reflected on the growing importance of personal experiences during the Enlightenment period, when human awareness led to higher personal experiences and exquisite interactions with nature, and his landscapes were filled with fresh energy as a result. William Turner’s paintings contributed to the development of Romanticism’s cross-disciplinary creative approach, setting the framework for later achievements in depicting subjective feelings that culminated in Impressionism .

What Was William Turner Famous For?

Turner’s painting style improved dramatically throughout the course of his long career as an artist. Although his early work focused on environmental aesthetics, as his career advanced, he began to focus less on the intricacies of products and landscape and more on the effect of light and color. Natural and ambient factors captivated him more and more. As a young artist, Turner, on the other hand, was a keen observer and recorder of his environment.

Isabella studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature & Language and Psychology. Throughout her undergraduate years, she took Art History as an additional subject and absolutely loved it. Building on from her art history knowledge that began in high school, art has always been a particular area of fascination for her. From learning about artworks previously unknown to her, or sharpening her existing understanding of specific works, the ability to continue learning within this interesting sphere excites her greatly.

Her focal points of interest in art history encompass profiling specific artists and art movements, as it is these areas where she is able to really dig deep into the rich narrative of the art world. Additionally, she particularly enjoys exploring the different artistic styles of the 20 th century, as well as the important impact that female artists have had on the development of art history.

Learn more about Isabella Meyer and the Art in Context Team .

Cite this Article

Isabella, Meyer, “William Turner – The Life and Romantic Works of J. M. W. Turner.” Art in Context. April 13, 2022. URL: https://artincontext.org/william-turner/

Meyer, I. (2022, 13 April). William Turner – The Life and Romantic Works of J. M. W. Turner. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/william-turner/

Meyer, Isabella. “William Turner – The Life and Romantic Works of J. M. W. Turner.” Art in Context , April 13, 2022. https://artincontext.org/william-turner/ .

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The Most Famous Artists and Artworks

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MOST FAMOUS ARTISTS AND ARTWORKS

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William Turner Biography

• William Turner

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Follow the journey of JMW Turner from modest beginnings to artistic phenomenon in this detailed biography of his life and career.

Joseph Mallord William Turner was the British star of the Romanticist art movement, producing powerful landscape paintings from the late 18th century through to the mid 19th century. Turner remains a much celebrated artist in his native UK and his finest work holds prominent positions amongst the nation's galleries and art museums. This biography tracks his route to stardom. The artist's skills extended to oil painting, watercolours , print making and as a draughtsman which served as a basis for everything else.

Impressionism is believed to have been inspired by the developments made by Turner, and artists of his ilk, and from that movement came all the modern art which we have enjoyed since the start of the 20th century. Essentially, Turner helped to set us off on a path from traditional historical art from the Renaissance and Baroque periods up to the abstract and expressionists like Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. See also related French Romanticists such as Eugene Delacroix and Theodore Gericault . Born on the 23rd of April, 1775 in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, England, Joseph Mallord William would never leave such a legacy without becoming a controversial figure along the way.

Early Life of William Turner

Unlike the majority of fine artists in the centuries before and since his own career, William came from a fairly modest upbringing, his father (also William) was a barber and wig maker. His mother, Mary, struggled with mental illness after the death of the artist's sibling, Helen, and passed away herself at the turn of the century. At that point, William Jnr was in his late twenties, and able to cope with his loss far better than if it had happened a decade earlier. Turner moved to stay with his uncle in Brentford in 1785 due to his parent's problems and it was here that the artist started to show his enthusiasm and promise.

He went to school in Margate, Kent and had begun to paint frequently as a childhood hobby. There were also early examples of what was to come through skilled draughtsmanship, with his father adorning his shop with several of his son's artworks.

William Turner's Academic Training

Turner went straight from the Royal Academy of Art schools in 1789 to the full academy a year later. Whilst showing an equal interest in architecture at this early age, several members of the academy encouraged their young student to put a greater emphasis on painting in his career. From this began a strong bond between the artist and the academy, with him exhibiting on a near annual basis for the the rest of his life. Early on, it was watercolours which were submitted and accepted, with oils then coming later.

Turner's Artistic Development and Later Life

One of the key elements to the artist's development was his constant travels across Europe. These fuelled inspiration and also added new techniques to his working methods. Turner entered France and Switzerland in 1802 as well as taking time to study in the Louvre in Paris in the same year. Venice in Italy had a huge impact on his work, as can be seen with the sheer volume of work which was based on landscapes in this region. Turner was also fond of the British countryside too, and produced endless oil paintings, sketches and watercolours of this diverse region.

William was also close to his father, right up until his death in 1929. The artist only had a few close friends, making the loss of his father even more significant. Bouts of depression followed as a direct result, and these hounded him for many years. Although never marrying William Turner had two daughters by his lover, Sarah Danby. He died on the 19th of December, 1851. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, where he lies next to Sir Joshua Reynolds, the man who had initially helped him to join the Royal Academy all those years ago.

Article Author

Tom Gurney in an art history expert. He received a BSc (Hons) degree from Salford University, UK, and has also studied famous artists and art movements for over 20 years. Tom has also published a number of books related to art history and continues to contribute to a number of different art websites. You can read more on Tom Gurney here.

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Turner is perhaps the best-loved English Romantic artist. He became known as 'the painter of light', because of his increasing interest in brilliant colours as the main constituent in his landscapes and seascapes. His works include water colours, oils and engravings.

Turner was born near Covent Garden in London and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1789. His earliest works form part of the 18th-century topographical tradition. He was soon inspired by 17th-century Dutch artists such as Willem van der Velde , and by the Italianate landscapes of Claude and Richard Wilson .

He exhibited watercolours at the Royal Academy from 1790, and oils from 1796. In 1840 he met the critic John Ruskin, who became the great champion of his work.

Turner became interested in contemporary technology, as can be seen from 'The Fighting Temeraire' and 'Rain, Steam and Speed' . At the time his free, expressive treatment of these subjects was criticised, but it is now widely appreciated.

Turner bequeathed much of his work to the nation. The great majority of the paintings are now at Tate Britain.

This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.

Biographical notes

Slavery connections.

Subscribed to an investment scheme which relied upon enslaved labour. In 1805, Turner bought one £100 share in the Dry Sugar Work Pen (St. Catherine parish, Jamaica), a cattle farm worked on by enslaved people. Turner would have expected to receive an annual income of at least £15, but the scheme failed in its first year and he lost his investment (S. Smiles, ‘Turner and the slave trade: Speculation and representation, 1805-40’, The British Art Journal , Vol. 8, No. 3 (Winter 2007/8), 47-54). Like many British artists of the time, Turner also had professional relationships with a number of patrons and collectors who were active in British slave ownership and trading and used their wealth to buy and/or commission artworks.

Abolition connections

ODNB states that ‘In 1840 Turner was represented by seven paintings at the Royal Academy, including another of his most famous works, Slavers throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhon coming on (BJ 385; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts), which is better known as ’The Slave Ship‘. This great icon of the anti-slavery campaign was given by his father as a new year gift in 1844 to John Ruskin, who wrote some of his most stirring passages in its praise, before finding it ’too painful to live with‘ and sending it to auction in 1869. The critics were almost unanimous in reviling ’The Slave Ship‘, and most of Turner’s other 1840 exhibits …’. (Luke Herrmann, ‘Turner, Joseph Mallord William (1775–1851)’, C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [online], Oxford 1992 -, ] < https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/27854 > accessed 6 August 2021.)

See also Laura Brace, ‘Fallacies of hope: Contesting narratives of abolition in Turner’s Slave Ship’, Atlantic Studies , vol. 17, no. 4, 2019, 441-461 < https://doi.org/10.1080/14788810.2019.1669419 >; John McCoubrey, ‘Turner’s Slave Ship: Abolition, Ruskin, and reception’, Word & Image , vol. 14, no. 4, 1998, 319-353, < https://doi.org/10.1080/02666286.1998.10443961 >.

National Gallery painting connections

Donor: the Turner Bequest comprised 100 finished pictures, 182 unfinished pictures and 19,049 drawings and sketches in colour and pencil. The majority of the bequest was transferred to the National Gallery of British Art [Tate] in 1897.

The following paintings from Turner’s Collection, donated via the Turner Bequest, have remained at the National Gallery: NG472, NG479, NG498, NG508, NG521, NG524, NG538, NG1991, NG1984.

Another painting by Turner is on long loan: L297.

Bibliography

M. Czubińska, Turner: malrz żywiołów: przewodnik (exh. cat., Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg; Muzeum Narodowe, Cracow; Turner Contemporary, Margate), Kraków 2011

L. Herrmann, 'Turner, Joseph Mallord William', in C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford 1992-, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/27854 Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History , London 1964-, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/ Checked and not found — Item on publisher's website

J. Lewison, Turner Monet Twombly: Later Paintings (exh. cat., Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Staatsgalerie, Stuttgard; Tate, Liverpool), London 2011

I. Richter-Musso and O. Westheider, Turner and the Elements (exh. cat., Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg; Muzeum Narodowe, Cracow; Turner Contemporary, Margate), Munich 2011

D.H. Solkin (ed.), Turner and the Masters (exh. cat., Tate Britain, London; Galeries nationaux du Grand Palais, Paris; Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid), London and New York 2009

D.H. Solkin (ed.), Turner et ses peintres (exh. cat., Tate Britain, London; Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, Paris; Museo nacional del Prado, Madrid) 2010

D.H. Solkin (ed.), Turner y los mastros (exh. cat., Tate Britain, London; Galeries nationaux du Grand Palais, Paris; Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid), Madrid 2010

UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership , London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/ Checked and not found — Item on publisher's website

I. Warrell, Turner Inspired: in the Light of Claude (exh. cat., The National Gallery, London), London 2012

O. Westheider and M. Philipp (eds.), Turner: malarz żywiołów (exh. cat., Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg; Muzeum Narodowe, Cracow; Turner Contemporary, Margate), Kraków 2011

A. Wilton, 'Turner, J(oseph) M(allord) W(illiam) ', in J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online , Oxford 1998-, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T086656 Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

Paintings by Joseph Mallord William Turner

Paintings previously owned by Joseph Mallord William Turner

Visiting Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion?

You must join the virtual exhibition queue when you arrive. If capacity has been reached for the day, the queue will close early.

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Joseph mallord william turner (1775–1851).

"Dark Prison (Carcere Oscura)"

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Saltash with the Water Ferry, Cornwall

View of London from Greenwich

Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute

The Lake of Zug

Elizabeth E. Barker Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2004

London-born Joseph Mallord William Turner was the most versatile, successful, and controversial landscape painter of nineteenth-century England. Demonstrating mastery of watercolor , oil painting, and etching , his voluminous output ranges from depictions of local topography to atmospheric renderings of fearsome storms and awe-inspiring terrain. Though profoundly influenced by landscapists and history painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Turner was an innovator who has been hailed as a forerunner of modernist abstraction.

Turner profited from extensive training both within and outside of the Royal Academy (RA) Schools . He was admitted to the RA’s Plaster Academy at the age of fourteen, and to the Life Class three years later. He gained additional experience coloring prints, working as an architectural draftsman, and designing theatrical sets. In the 1790s, he participated in an informal “Academy,” where he joined with Thomas Girtin and other young men in copying from prints, watercolors , and topographical drawings at the home of the physician and alienist Dr. Thomas Monro.

These early lessons in topography ( 59.23.23 ) stayed with Turner throughout his life. His first exhibited paintings were carefully delineated watercolors of recognizable English monuments and landscapes. Although Turner would later develop an extensive visual vocabulary that ranged far beyond precise renderings, first-hand observations remained crucial to his working method. Over the course of five decades, he filled hundreds of sketchbooks with visual records of scores of tours through England ( 89.15.9 ), Scotland, and Wales, and around the Continent to Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, the Rhineland, Switzerland ( 59.120 ), and elsewhere. Turner relied on these on-site sketches to inform even his most highly imaginative paintings. For instance, Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute  ( 99.31 ), exhibited at the RA in 1835, combines multiple viewpoints to present an impossible view of several Venetian landmarks.

Watercolors inspired by these tours provided fertile ground for Turner’s technical experimentation and, when used as the bases of print series, helped him to disseminate his principles and earn a sizable income. In the 1810s and 1820s, he produced series of small-scale topographical watercolors in which he evoked forms by layering blocks of color according to a classification system of “light” and “dark” colors that challenged many assumptions of contemporary color theory. The watercolors’ light-filled, expressionistic appearance reflects this innovative technique. To create details, Turner scraped, blotted, and wiped the paint while it was still wet, and scratched into or drew on dry surfaces. Watercolors of English rivers, ports, and coastal scenes served as the basis for mezzotint and engraving series, including the Ports of England (1826–28). Turner adapted his watercolor methods to oil paintings, which he built up from foundations of color to create uniquely evocative shapes and glowing forms.

The seventy prints of his Liber Studiorum (1807–19; Windmill and Lock , Tate, London) express Turner’s elevated ambitions most clearly. These atmospheric images, which combine his own etched outlines with mezzotints applied by other artists, present six categories of landscape: Pastoral, Marine, Mountainous, Historical, Architectural, and Epic Pastoral. The title deliberately echoes the Liber Veritatis , a compilation of prints by the esteemed seventeenth-century painter of idealized landscapes Claude Lorrain . Turner may have produced another series of mezzotints singlehandedly; these images, never published, are known as the Little Liber (ca. 1824–26).

Turner believed that landscapes could convey a full range of artistic, historical, and emotional meanings, and presented himself as an heir to the great history painters of the past. As a young man, he learned to imbue his paintings with powerful expression by studying Piranesi’s imposing architectural fantasies ( 06.1051.3 ) and copying works by Renaissance and Baroque masters. The legacies of Poussin , Raphael, Titian , and others are evident throughout his oeuvre. Turner specifically claimed Raphael and Rome as his inspirations in Rome, from the Vatican. Raffaelle, Accompanied by La Fornarina, Preparing His Pictures for the Decoration of the Loggia (1820; Tate, London).

Turner’s forays into poetry complemented and enhanced the narratives of his landscape paintings. In 1798, he began including quotes from poets—for instance, Milton and Lord Byron—as accompaniments to his paintings in RA catalogue entries. He first used selections from his unfinished poem “Fallacies of Hope” when he exhibited Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps (1812; Tate, London). Excerpts from the poem would accompany many of Turner’s subsequent paintings, though the text was never completed or published.

In addition to narrating tales from the distant past, Turner also found subjects in the world around him. Interested in expressing grand emotions, he was particularly attracted to sublime or awesome aspects of contemporary life. When, on October 16, 1834, the Houses of Parliament were ravaged by fire, he observed the conflagration from a boat in the Thames and recorded the scene in watercolors and oil paintings ( The Burning of the Houses of Parliament , Tate, London). He memorialized yet a greater tragedy in Slave Ship  (1840; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), indicting the slave trade’s calculated horrors with agitated brushstrokes congealing into violent waves beneath a blood-red sky. The nearly abstract Rain, Steam, and Speed—The Great Western Railway (1844; National Gallery, London) evokes the Industrial Revolution’s rapid transformations through strong diagonals, bold contrasts of light and dark, and tumultuous handling.

Turner elicited strong responses from friends and foes alike. On the one hand, he was respected by many colleagues. Having become a full member of the RA at age twenty-six, he was elected Professor of Perspective five years later. He remained active in the Academy throughout his life, serving in various governing roles that culminated in a brief tenure as acting president in 1845. Yet Turner continually elicited disdain from some conservative critics. In 1836, a vituperative review lambasting his loose handling inspired John Ruskin to take up Turner’s defense. Ruskin’s argument for Turner’s genius ultimately grew into the five-volume Modern Painters (published 1843–60). Upon his death, Turner joined the notable Britons buried in Saint Paul’s Cathedral. His bequest of 300 oil paintings and more than 20,000 works on paper soon entered the collection of London’s Tate Gallery.

Barker, Elizabeth E. “Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/trnr/hd_trnr.htm (October 2004)

Further Reading

Gage, John. J. M. W. Turner: "A Wonderful Range of Mind." . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.

Lindsay, Jack. Turner: The Man and His Art . London: Granada, 1985.

Wilton, Andrew. J. M. W. Turner: His Art and Life . New York: Rizzoli, 1979.

Wilton, Andrew. Turner in His Time . New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987.

Additional Essays by Elizabeth E. Barker

• Barker, Elizabeth E.. “ The Printed Image in the West: Mezzotint .” (October 2003)
• Barker, Elizabeth E.. “ John Constable (1776–1837) .” (October 2004)
• Barker, Elizabeth E.. “ Watercolor Painting in Britain, 1750–1850 .” (October 2004)
• Barker, Elizabeth E.. “ William Blake (1757–1827) .” (October 2004)

Related Essays

• John Constable (1776–1837)
• The Printed Image in the West: Engraving
• The Printed Image in the West: Mezzotint
• The Salon and the Royal Academy in the Nineteenth Century
• Watercolor Painting in Britain, 1750–1850
• Asher Brown Durand (1796–1886)
• Claude Lorrain (1604/5?–1682)
• Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778)
• The Hudson River School
• James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
• Neoclassicism
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• Nineteenth-Century American Drawings
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• Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823–1880)
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• The Transatlantic Slave Trade
• The Transformation of Landscape Painting in France
• William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) and the Invention of Photography

List of Rulers

• List of Rulers of Europe
• Great Britain and Ireland, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Great Britain and Ireland, 1800–1900 A.D.
• 19th Century A.D.
• Arboreal Landscape
• Baroque Art
• British Literature / Poetry
• Great Britain and Ireland
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• Oil on Canvas
• Printmaking
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Artist or Maker

• Lorrain, Claude
• Piranesi, Giovanni Battista
• Poussin, Nicolas
• Turner, Joseph Mallord William

Online Features

• The Artist Project: “Raymond Pettibon on Joseph Mallord William Turner”
• Connections: “The View” by Debra McDowell

Biography Online

J. M.W. Turner Biography

Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (23 April 1775 – 19 December 1851) was an English romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. He is famous for his expressive paintings of landscapes and the sea. He was fascinated by violent weather and the interplay of light on dark, stormy scenes. Increasingly he experimented with imaginative interpretations of his subjects, becoming a fore-runner for impressionist painting. Turner is often referred to as the ‘Painter of Light’

Short Biography J.M.W Turner

His career was considerably helped by benefactors such as Walter Ramsden Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, near Otley. Turner visited Otley on several occasions and loved the surrounding Yorkshire countryside. He also secured the patronage George O’Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont at Petworth House in West Sussex.  Turner also took the opportunity to travel around Europe, visiting famous art museums in Paris, Vienna and Switzerland.

“It is necessary to mark the greater from the lesser truth: namely the larger and more liberal idea of nature from the comparatively narrow and confined; namely that which addresses itself to the imagination from that which is solely addressed to the eye.”

– Turner

Turner loved to paint landscapes and nature. His method of work was to visit suitable locations and make pencil sketches, he then took these back and filled in the painting with colour at a later stage. Much of his work is inspired by different locations in England and Wales. He also frequently visited the coast and the Isle of Wight to capture scenes of the sea, which was one of his great loves. He was particularly fascinated with the extremes of nature such as violent storms. Turner was adept at creating a sense of drama in his painting – the combination of movement and a sharp contrast between sunlight and the dark clouds.

“Fishermen at Sea” 1792

An apocryphal tale suggests Turner tied himself to the mast of a ship during a storm so he could witness the buffeting of nature.

Shipwreck (1805)

John Ruskin once described Turner as the artist who could most “stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature.” (Piper 321)

“‘Look at this thunderstorm! Isn’t it grand? – Isn’t it wonderful? – Isn’t it sublime? There, Hawkey [his friend Mr. Fawkes]; in two years you will see this again, and call it ‘Hannibal Crossing the Alps’ – J.M.W. Turner

“To select, combine and concentrate that which is beautiful in nature and admirable in art is as much the business of the landscape painter in his line as in the other departments of art.”

– Turner, c. 1810

However, his innovations and freedom with form were not universally accepted, some prominent art critics were hostile to Turner’s art. For example, the Royal Academy’s President, Benjamin West described Turner’s paintings of the Thames as ‘crude blotches’. Others felt he was undermining the great Masters of the past. It is possible Turner’s prickly temperament didn’t help endear him to others either. However, Turner was undeterred and with his financial freedom, followed his own tastes and creativity.

Turner, like many artists of his generation, was fascinated with light. Turner is reported to have said on his deathbed ‘ God is light ‘. Many of his paintings are noted for their vivid depictions of light which were often the focus of his paintings.

The Fighting Temeraire (1835)

Personal life

Turner never married but fathered two daughters with his housekeeper Sarah Danby. He was known for his eccentric and reclusive life-style. He was ill at ease amongst social circles, especially high-brow art contemporaries, he was perhaps conscious of his strong Cockney accent which marked him out as different. One member of the Royal Academy, Joseph Farington, described Turner as ‘confident, presumptuous – with talent’ but Farington later noticed Turner’s seeming mental decline and he came to regard him with ‘puzzled incomprehension’.

For many years, Turner lived with his father, with whom he had a close relationship. After his father’s death in 1829, he became more secluded and prone to periods of depression. For the last 18 years of his life, he formed a relationship with Sophia Caroline Booth, who lived in Chelsea.

Turner died on 19 December 1851 from cholera, whilst living in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. His last words were reported to be “The Sun is God” also recorded as “God is light”.

Chichester Canal circa 1828

Turner helped elevate landscape painting and is often seen as a Romantic painter who helped influence the new movement of Impressionism. Along with John Constable , he is considered one of the finest British artists of all time.

Citation:  Pettinger, Tejvan . “J.M.W. Turner Biography”, Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net. Published 23 May 2014. Last updated 6 March 2020.

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• The Complete Works

Turner The Complete Works

Turner Biography In Details

Life and career

Turner was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, England. His father, William Gay Turner (27 January 1738 – 7 August 1829), was a barber and wig maker. His mother, Mary Marshall, became increasingly mentally unstable, perhaps, in part, due to the early death of Turner's younger sister, Helen Turner, in 1786. She died in 1804, after having been committed to a mental asylum in 1799.

Possibly due to the load placed on the family by these problems, the young Turner was sent to stay with his uncle on his mother's side in Brentford in 1785, which was then a small town west of London on the banks of the River Thames. It was here that he first expressed an interest in painting. A year later he went to school in Margate on the north-east Kent coast. By this time he had created many drawings, which his father exhibited in his shop window.

He entered the Royal Academy of Art schools in 1789, when he was only 14 years old, and was accepted into the academy a year later. Sir Joshua Reynolds, president of the Royal Academy at the time, chaired the panel that admitted him. At first Turner showed a keen interest in architecture but was advised to keep to painting by the architect Thomas Hardwick (junior). A watercolour of Turner's was accepted for the Summer Exhibition of 1790 after only one year's study. He exhibited his first oil painting in 1796, Fishermen at Sea, and thereafter exhibited at the academy nearly every year for the rest of his life.

Although renowned for his oils, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light". One of his most famous oil paintings is The fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, painted in 1838, which hangs in the National Gallery, London. Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same year. He also made many visits to Venice. On a visit to Lyme Regis, in Dorset, England, he painted a stormy scene (now in the Cincinnati Art Museum).

Important support for his works also came from Walter Ramsden Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, near Otley in Yorkshire, who became a close friend of the artist. Turner first visited Otley in 1797, aged 22, when commissioned to paint watercolours of the area. He was so attracted to Otley and the surrounding area that he returned time and time again. The stormy backdrop of Hannibal Crossing The Alps is reputed to have been inspired by a storm over Otley's Chevin while Turner was staying at Farnley Hall.

Turner was also a frequent guest of George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont at Petworth House in West Sussex and painted scenes from the grounds of the house and of the Sussex countryside, including a view of the Chichester Canal that Egremont funded. Petworth House still displays a number of paintings.

As he grew older, Turner became more eccentric. He had few close friends except for his father, who lived with him for thirty years, eventually working as his studio assistant. His father's death in 1829 had a profound effect on him, and thereafter he was subject to bouts of depression. He never married, although he had two daughters by Sarah Danby, one born in 1801, the other in 1811.

He died in the house of his mistress Sophia Caroline Booth in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea on 19 December 1851. He is said to have uttered the last words "The sun is God" before expiring. At his request he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, where he lies next to Sir Joshua Reynolds. His last exhibition at the Royal Academy was in 1850.

The architect Philip Hardwick (1792–1870) who was a friend of Turner's and also the son of the artist's tutor, Thomas Hardwick, was one in charge of his funeral arrangements and wrote to those who knew Turner to tell them at the time of his death that "I must inform you, we have lost him".

Turner's talent was recognised early in his life. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate freely; his mature work is characterised by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. According to David Piper's The Illustrated History of Art, his later pictures were called "fantastic puzzles." However, Turner was still recognised as an artistic genius: the influential English art critic John Ruskin described Turner as the artist who could most "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature." (Piper 321)

Suitable vehicles for Turner's imagination were to be found in the subjects of shipwrecks, fires (such as the Burning of Parliament in 1834 , an event which Turner rushed to witness first-hand, and which he transcribed in a series of watercolour sketches), natural catastrophes, and natural phenomena such as sunlight, storm, rain, and fog. He was fascinated by the violent power of the sea, as seen in Dawn after the Wreck (1840) and The Slave Ship (1840) .

Turner placed human beings in many of his paintings to indicate his affection for humanity on the one hand (note the frequent scenes of people drinking and merry-making or working in the foreground), but its vulnerability and vulgarity amid the 'sublime' nature of the world on the other hand. 'Sublime' here means awe-inspiring, savage grandeur, a natural world unmastered by man, evidence of the power of God - a theme that artists and poets were exploring in this period. The significance of light was to Turner the emanation of God's spirit and this was why he refined the subject matter of his later paintings by leaving out solid objects and detail, concentrating on the play of light on water, the radiance of skies and fires. Although these late paintings appear to be 'impressionistic' and therefore a forerunner of the French school, Turner was striving for expression of spirituality in the world, rather than responding primarily to optical phenomena.

His early works, such as Tintern Abbey (1795), stayed true to the traditions of English landscape. However, in Hannibal Crossing the Alps (1812) , an emphasis on the destructive power of nature had already come into play. His distinctive style of painting, in which he used watercolour technique with oil paints, created lightness, fluency, and ephemeral atmospheric effects. (Piper 321)

One popular story about Turner, though it likely has little basis in reality, states that he even had himself "tied to the mast of a ship in order to experience the drama" of the elements during a storm at sea.

In his later years he used oils ever more transparently, and turned to an evocation of almost pure light by use of shimmering colour. A prime example of his mature style can be seen in Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway , where the objects are barely recognizable. The intensity of hue and interest in evanescent light not only placed Turner's work in the vanguard of English painting, but later exerted an influence upon art in France, as well; the Impressionists, particularly Claude Monet, carefully studied his techniques.

It has been suggested that the high levels of ash in the atmosphere during the 1816 "Year Without a Summer," which led to unusually spectacular sunsets during this period, were an inspiration for some of Turner's work.

John Ruskin says in his "Notes" on Turner in March 1878, that an early patron, Dr Thomas Monro, the Principal Physician of Bedlam, was a significant influence on Turner's style: His true master was Dr Monro; to the practical teaching of that first patron and the wise simplicity of method of watercolour study, in which he was disciplined by him and companioned by Giston, the healthy and constant development of the greater power is primarily to be attributed; the greatness of the power itself, it is impossible to over-estimate.

The first American to buy a Turner painting was James Lenox of New York City, a private collector. Lenox wished to own a Turner and in 1845 bought one unseen through an intermediary, his friend C. R. Leslie. From among the paintings Turner had on hand and was willing to sell for £500, Leslie selected and shipped the 1832 atmospheric seascape Staffa, Fingal's Cave . Worried about the painting's reception by Lenox, who knew Turner's work only through his etchings, Leslie wrote Lenox that the quality of Staffa, "a most poetic picture of a steam boat" would become apparent in time. Upon receiving the painting Lenox was baffled, and "greatly disappointed" by what he called the painting's "indistinctness". When Leslie was forced to relay this opinion to Turner, Turner said "You should tell Mr. Lenox that indistinctness is my fault." Staffa, Fingal's Cave is currently owned by the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut.

Turner left a small fortune which he hoped would be used to support what he called "decayed artists". Part of the money went to the Royal Academy of Arts, which does not now use it for this purpose, though occasionally it awards students the Turner Medal. His collection of finished paintings was bequeathed to the British nation, and he intended that a special gallery would be built to house them. This did not come to pass owing to a failure to agree on a site, and then to the parsimony of British governments. Twenty-two years after his death, the British Parliament passed an Act allowing his paintings to be lent to museums outside London, and so began the process of scattering the pictures which Turner had wanted to be kept together. In 1910 the main part of the Turner Bequest, which includes unfinished paintings and drawings, was rehoused in the Duveen Turner Wing at the Tate Gallery. In 1987 a new wing of the Tate, the Clore Gallery, was opened specifically to house the Turner bequest, though some of the most important paintings in it remain in the National Gallery in contravention of Turner's condition that the finished pictures be kept and shown together.

In 1974, the Turner Museum was founded in the USA by Douglass Montrose-Graem to house his collection of Turner prints. A prestigious annual art award, the Turner Prize, created in 1984, was named in Turner's honour, but has become increasingly controversial, having promoted art which has no apparent connection with Turner's. Twenty years later the more modest Winsor & Newton Turner Watercolour Award was founded. A major exhibition, "Turner's Britain", with material, (including The Fighting Temeraire ) on loan from around the globe, was held at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery from 7 November 2003 to 8 February 2004. In 2005, Turner's The Fighting Temeraire was voted Britain's "greatest painting" in a public poll organised by the BBC.

In October 2005 Professor Harold Livermore, its owner for 60 years, gave Sandycombe Lodge, the villa at Twickenham which Turner designed and built for himself, to the Sandycombe Lodge Trust to be preserved as a monument to the artist. In 2006 he additionally gave some land to the Trust which had been part of Turner's domaine. The organisation The Friends of Turner's House was formed in 2004 to support it.

In April 2006, Christie's New York auctioned Giudecca, La Donna Della Salute and San Giorgio , a view of Venice exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1841, for US$35.8 million, setting a new record for a Turner. The New York Times stated that according to two sources who had requested anonymity the buyer was casino magnate Stephen Wynn.

In 2006, Turner's Glaucus and Scylla (1840) was returned by Kimbell Art Museum to the heirs of John and Anna Jaffe after a Holocaust Claim was made. The painting was repurchased by the Kimbell for $5.7 million at a sale by Christie's in April of 2007. (From wikipedia)

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Joseph Mallord William Turner

• Dort or Dordrecht the Dort Packet-boat From Rotterdam Becalmed
• Fishermen at Sea
• Frosty Morning

Norham Castle Sunrise

• Norham Castle on the Tweed
• Norham Castle on the Tweed Sunrise
• Peace - Burial at Sea

Rain Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway

• Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth

Snow Storm Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps

St. Mawes at the Pilchard Season

• Staffa Fingal's Cave
• Sunrise with a Boat between Headlands

The Bay of Baiae with Apollo and the Sibyl

• The Fighting Temeraire
• The Shipwreck
• The Shipwreck of the Minotaur

• Short Name:
• Date of Birth:
• 23 Apr 1775
• Date of Death:
• 19 Dec 1851
• Oil, Watercolor, Prints
• Landscapes, Scenery
• Art Movement:
• Romanticism
• London, United Kingdom
• Joseph Mallord William Turner Page's Content

Introduction

• Artistic Context
• Style and Technique
• Who or What Influenced
• Critical Reception
• Bibliography

Joseph Mallord William Turner is often described as the 19th century's greatest landscape painter. He was fascinated by the powers of nature and transferred this passion onto canvas. In his later works he focused on the new abilities of the machines of the industrial revolution and he led a long and successful career. As a leading Romantic painter focusing mainly on color and lighting, Turner's works went on to later influence the Impressionist movement.

Joseph Mallord William Turner Artistic Context

Romanticism is sometimes viewed as a reaction to its more serious predecessor, the Neoclassical movement. As Neoclassical artists focused on properly accounting history through close attention to detail, Romantic artists flirted with themes of man's self glorification, man's part in nature, divinity found in nature, and emotion. Though Neoclassicism is generally associated with the history genre, Turner is credited with having embarked on a subject matter so great that it actually rivaled the history genre. His subject matter accounts for recording history, but in a different style than ever seen before. He used color to intensify emotion in portraying the passing of events.

Joseph Mallord William Turner Biography

J. M.W. Turner began his artistic career at a very young age and his success was almost immediate, selling his first painting at just 12 years old. Turner continued to accomplish significant achievements at a remarkably young age, some that people with much more experience would never have the privilege of enjoying. Throughout his career Turner remained highly sought-after and he acquired a very large fortune from his commissions. He is remembered as an influential painter and is said to be the best landscapist of the 19th century. Turner was also a key inspiration for the Impressionist movement. He is most well-known for his original interpretations of bringing light and color to his paintings.

Joseph Mallord William Turner Style and Technique

Turner displayed an evident evolution in his painting style throughout his long career. Though he stayed true to the genre of landscape, as his career progressed he began to pay less attention to the details of objects and landscape and more attention to the effects of light and color. He became increasingly fascinated with natural and atmospheric elements. Style: Early Years: In Turner's early paintings he executed dramatic, Romantic subjects by emphasizing luminosity, and atmosphere. One can observe a more precise attention paid to architectural and natural details in his early years, as compared to his later years. During this time, he played around with all the styles of landscape composition including historical, architectural, mountainous, pastoral and marine. His series of 71 etchings, inspired from his existing paintings and watercolors, show all of these styles (1807-1819). Middle Years: Turner's painting style shifted during the 1880s. His painting became more luminous and atmospheric. He began to focus more on color than the details of the actual topography. St. Mawes at the Pilchard Season (1812) is an example. Frosty Morning (1813) is based solely on the effects of light. As time progressed he paid less attention to specific details and more to atmospheric quality created by the natural elements, such as the sun. Advanced Years: Still, less and less attention is given to detail, while his canvas now begin to assume a suggestion of movement. His Norham Castle, Sunrise and With A Boat Between Headlands are both examples of slightly brushed canvases, mere color notations. Some of his more famous later paintings, he approaches the subject of modern technology. He pays a tribute to the passing age of sail ships that were soon to be replaced by steam-powered vessels. He moves away from marine subject matter, and focuses now on the railway in Rain, Steam, and Speed-the Great Western Railway (1844). This is a prime example of how Turner focused mainly on colors and the idea of fluidity through his whirling colors. Method: Turner's watercolor paintings provided a later influence on his technique with oil paint. He started to use oil paint in a translucent manner, similar to the effect of water color, which helped produce his original style. Before painting a vast majority of his work, as many of his subjects (mainly water) changed so quickly, he had to do preliminary sketches. He later turned his sketches in to watercolor or oil paintings.

Who or What Influenced Joseph Mallord William Turner

John Robert Cozens

Richard Wilson

Like most artists, Turner was heavily influenced by the masters that came before him. After closely studying the techniques of fellow Romantic landscape artists, both John Robert Cozens and Richard Wilson, Turner began to develop his own unique style. He spent time studying at the Louvre, viewing the work of other artists and honing in on his craft. His greatest influence however, came during his travels when he witnessed nature and all its grandeur live and in person. Chronological Order of Influences: As a young artist Turner (circa 1797) was employed to make reproductions of the unfinished work of the late landscapists, John Robert Cozens. Cozens, a fellow English romantic painter, had a lasting influence on Turner by his use of watercolors to create his luminous atmospheres. The similarities can be seen in the light treatment between the two artists. Fellow landscapist, Richard Wilson, is credited as having revealed to Turner a more poetic and imaginative approach to landscape. Wilson was greatly commissioned by the aristocrats and even the royal family. His love for landscapes was said to be the cause of the loss of his fortune, as they were the least commissioned of his work. Aside from style, his travels were the main inspiration for the content of his work. His travels throughout England, to Wales, Scotland, and through the European continent profoundly affected his work. His tour of Switzerland and France resulted in 400 drawings, which he later drew from to create beautiful painted landscapes. During his time in France he studied the Old Masters of art at the Louvre. He took a strong liking to the marine activity, a subject often encountered in his work.

Joseph Mallord William Turner Works

• Date of Creation 1818
• Height (cm) 157.50
• Length (cm) 233.00
• Support Canvas
• Subject Landscapes

A moonlit scene showing the Needles (rocks), of...

• Date of Creation 1796
• Height (cm) 91.40
• Length (cm) 122.20

A scene witnessed by Turner while travelling in...

• Date of Creation 1813
• Height (cm) 113.70
• Length (cm) 174.60

A depiction of Norham Castle, Northumberland, UK

• Date of Creation 1807
• Height (cm) 192.00
• Length (cm) 274.00
• Medium Watercolor
• Support Paper

Sunrise over Norham Castle, Northumberland, UK

• Date of Creation 1798
• Height (cm) 50.10
• Length (cm) 70.50

• Date of Creation 1845
• Height (cm) 90.80
• Length (cm) 121.90

The burial at sea of Turner's friend, the artis...

• Date of Creation 1842
• Height (cm) 86.70
• Length (cm) 87.00

Maidenhead railway bridge

• Date of Creation 1844
• Height (cm) 91.00
• Length (cm) 121.80

A steam-boat at the heart of an elemental vortex

Hannibal himself is not pictured, but his armie...

• Date of Creation 1812
• Height (cm) 146.00
• Length (cm) 237.50

St Mawes, east of Falmouth Bay, in the UK durin...

• Height (cm) 91.10
• Length (cm) 120.60
• Subject Scenery

A cave in Staffa, small uninhabited island in t...

• Date of Creation 1832
• Height (cm) 90.90
• Length (cm) 121.40

an unfinished landscape, thought to depict eith...

The Baiae, in the Bay of Naples, serves as a ba...

• Date of Creation 1823
• Height (cm) 145.40

'Temeraire' is shown travelling east, away from...

• Date of Creation 1839
• Alternative Names The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up
• Height (cm) 90.70
• Length (cm) 121.60

A gloomy depiction of man's battle with the ele...

• Date of Creation 1805
• Height (cm) 170.50
• Length (cm) 241.60

The HMS Minotaur after she struck the Haak Bank...

Joseph Mallord William Turner Followers

Turner Quotes

"I did not paint... to be understood. I wished to show what such a scene was like."

Claude Monet

Édouard Manet

The majority of Turner's followers came after his death. He had the greatest recognized influence on the Impressionist, and Post-Impressionist movements. The ripple effect of his innovations can still be seen in the art of today's landscape painters. Contemporary followers: Though his talent was widely recognized during his day, not much is said of Turner's followers during his lifetime. Posthumous: A widely recognized group of Turner's followers were the Impressionists. Turner is said not only to have influenced Impressionist painters, but also Impressionist musicians. Turner's abstract portrayal of light and the elemental forces of nature laid the ground work for impressionism and post impressionism. His observed nature and he challenged the conventional formulas of representation. His fascination with light is a concept said to have transcended from the canvas to even influence Impressionist musicians. Impressionist art is characterized by the impression of objects or a scene through reflected light. It may be obscure, repetitive in effect and displays the appeal of color. The same goes for music, which also can be vague but still somehow demonstrate color. Followers Today: Turner continues to be talked about in blog pages and websites. Fans continue to praise his art and comment on how influential he has been to their own art.

Joseph Mallord William Turner Critical Reception

John Ruskin

Throughout his career, Turner was a well-liked and highly sought-after artist. During his early days, the Royal Academy praised his work. Though patrons were willing to pay top dollar for his paintings, there were of course conservative critics who attacked Turner's compositions. A revival of interest in his work took place during the 20th century. During Life: As a young emerging artist of the early 19th century, conservative critics disapproved of Turner's "dynamic compositions" and shocking colors. This critical outlook did not influence the public however; Turner had enough commissions to last him a lifetime. His popularity increased further during the mid 19th century after John Ruskin, English art critic, pronounced Turner as superior to all previous landscape painters in his book Modern Painters (1843). As a young emerging artist of the early 19th century, conservative critics disapproved of Turner's "dynamic compositions" and shocking colors. This critical outlook did not influence the public however; Turner had enough commissions to last him a lifetime. His popularity increased further during the mid 19th century after John Ruskin, English art critic, pronounced Turner as superior to all previous landscape painters in his book Modern Painters (1843). After Death: Turner's work was still admired after his death mostly so by fellow artists, the Impressionist. They admired his work for Turner depicted a moment in an ever-changing scene (turmoil of a storm, a sunset etc) masterfully, and with a beautiful attention paid towards color and light. These characteristics greatly influenced the Impressionist movement. The rebirth of interest in Turner's art occurred in the 20th century. He is recognized today as an innovative and technically accurate painter. Appreciation for his abstract qualities and use of color and light continues to grow even today.

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bibliography

Volumes have been written about Romanticism and Turner's contribution to this exciting movement. Below is a selection of some recommended works for further reading about this fascinating movement in art. Books: • Brennan, Matthew. Wordsworth, Turner, and Romantic Landscape. Columbia, SC. : Camden House, 1987 • Finley, Gerald. "Turner and the Steam Revolution. " Gazette Des Beaux-Arts 112 (1988): 19-30 • Gaunt, William. Turner. Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1971 • Klingender, F. D. Art and the Industrial Revolution. 1947. Ed. Arthur Elton. London: Evelyn, Adams & Mackay, 1968 • Lindsay, Jack. J. M. W. Turner: A Critical Biography. London: Cory, Adams and Mackay, 1966 • Reynolds, Graham. Turner. New York: Harry N. Abrams • Rothenstein, John, and Martin Butlin. Turner. New York: George Braziller, 1964

J. M. W. Turner

Apr 23, 1775 - dec 19, 1851, artist highlights, slideshow auto-selected from multiple collections, explore jmw turner's painting, 'dolbadern castle', royal academy of arts, getting to know j m w turner, discover this artist, related works from the web, the fighting temeraire (1839), www.wikidata.org the fighting temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up ..., the battle of trafalgar (1824), www.wikidata.org the battle of trafalgar - wikidata, the slave ship (1840), www.wikidata.org the slave ship - wikidata, rain, steam and speed – the great western railway (1844), www.wikidata.org rain, steam and speed – the great western railway - wikidata, fishermen at sea (1796), www.wikidata.org fishermen at sea - wikidata, the burning of the houses of parliament (1835), www.wikiart.org the burning of the houses of parliament, 1835 - j.m.w. turner ..., dido building carthage (1815), www.wikidata.org dido building carthage - wikidata, snow storm: steam-boat off a harbour's mouth (1842), www.tate.org.uk 'snow storm - steam-boat off a harbour's mouth', joseph mallord ..., snow storm: hannibal and his army crossing the alps (1812), www.wikidata.org snow storm: hannibal and his army crossing the alps - wikidata, calais pier, www.wikidata.org calais pier - wikidata, “if i could find anything blacker than black, i'd use it.”, more artists, caspar david friedrich, john constable, william hogarth, thomas gainsborough, winslow homer, more art movements, romanticism, 6,707 items, neoclassicism, 2,533 items, more mediums, 32,241 items, watercolor painting, 50,310 items, 54,676 items, 45,510 items, 13,423 items, 31,711 items.

Who are they?

Who is J.M.W. Turner?

Gaze upon the amazing shimmering landscapes of the first modern painter!

Joseph Mallord William Turner Norham Castle, Sunrise (c.1845) Tate

Turner was a landscape painter, traveller, poet and teacher. Many people consider him the first modern painter! The art critic John Ruskin said he was ‘the greatest of the age’.

Let’s see what you think!

J.M.W Turner (the J.M.W stands for Joseph Mallord William by the way), was born in London in 1775. His dad was a barber, but Turner always knew he wanted to be an artist. When he was just 14 years old he became a student at the Royal Academy of Art in London.

Joseph Mallord William Turner London Bridge from Downstream near the End of Billingsgate, with St Magnus-the-Martyr to the Right, the Monument Further to the Right (c.1805–6) Tate

One of the reasons that Turner was so extraordinary was because he liked to draw and paint ‘en plein air’, which means out in the open. This was unusual in Turner’s day as most artists painted in their studios. Turner took his sketchbooks, canvases and his paints out with him every day and painted what he saw. (He got through hundreds of sketchbooks – and created over 30,000 artworks altogether!!). The picture above is a page from one of his sketchbooks. It is a painting of London Bridge...do you think it looks like that now?

Turner drew and painted at different times of the day and in all weathers. He painted sunrises, sunsets, mist, rain and snow; which is why he is sometimes called 'the painter of light'.

Joseph Mallord William Turner Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (exhibited 1842) Tate

He sometimes went to crazy extremes to capture what nature looks and feels like. There is a famous story about Turner, that he once had himself tied to the mast of a ship during a very bad storm so that he could experience what it was like to have the waves crashing about him! No one really knows if this is true, but we like the story because Turner was such an extraordinary artist it sounds just the sort of thing he would do.

Turner is known as a Romantic artist. Romantic artists wanted to experience the terrible beauty of nature.

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ancient Rome; Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus (exhibited 1839) Tate

Joseph Mallord William Turner Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (exhibited 1812) Tate

Turner also painted great moments in history and fantastic stories, which often challenged the styles of older painters.

Although lots of his paintings are full of light and look dream-like, he also made dark, epic paintings, which had great atmosphere, like the Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps. Do you prefer his light or dark paintings?

Even when he was older, Turner was a radical artist. He was interested in new technology – like steam ships and trains (which were exciting and new in the middle of the nineteenth century). What do you think he would paint today to show new technology?

Joseph Mallord William Turner Steamer and Lightship; a study for ‘The Fighting Temeraire’ (c.1838–9) Tate

Alfred Sisley The Bridge at Sèvres (1877) Tate

People call Turner the first modern artist because his messy, expressive style and bright colours influenced lots of modern artists. Many of his later artworks look like impressionist paintings. This was a style of painting that happened in France many years after Turner was working. Compare Turner's painting above of the sea, to the impressionist painting of a river. Can you see how they are similar?

Olafur Eliasson Colour experiment no. 60 2014 © 2013 Olafur Eliasson

Joseph Mallord William Turner Fishermen at Sea (exhibited 1796) Tate

Turner still inspires modern artists. Artist Olafur Eliasson's Turner Colour Experiments look at the colour and atmosphere in Turner’s paintings. This one is inspired by one of Turner’s first oil paintings, Fishermen at Sea. Can you see the similar colours in both of them? Which one do you prefer? Do both artworks make you feel the same?

What do you think of Turner? Do you agree that he was ahead of his time and was one of the first modern artists?

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sun Setting over a Lake (c.1840) Tate

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He became well known and highly considered in his country and abroad by publishing his watercolor works, starting from 1826 in " The Keepsake " (one of these yearbooks combining literary and artistic matters, then very much appreciated by English society), and starting from 1831 in " The Turner's Annual Tour " , a collection of steel or copper engravings .

However, the new style of his oil works, so extraordinarily modern for his time, was not understood by his contemporaries who would judge it "delirious". Nevertheless he kept unconditionnal admirers, John Ruskin being the first of them.

The life and work of Joseph Mallord William

JMW TURNER, PRECOCIOUS AND RECOGNIZED PAINTER

From 1796 on, Turner will regularly exhibit oil paintings at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy , mostly historical subjects represented in fantastic and sublimated landscapes , in a way similar to that of 17th and 18th centuries' painters.

Very early Turner became successful and wealthy as a painter, and soon became recognized by artistical being elected as full academician at only the age of 27. Although he shall not refuse the duties of his academician statute, he will limit them, seeking from time to time for secret retreats, until his definitive withdrawal at the end of his life, when he totally disappeared under a false identity in Chelsea , a London suburbs on the Thames River.

Turner was described by Constable and Delacroix as slovenly in dress, with uncought manners, silent even taciturn, but with a wonderful range of mind. Entirely devoted to his art, Turner did not found a family. Whereas it is known that he has had several female companions throughout his life, especially Sarah Danby around 1798, whom he supported along with her children, and with whom he probably had his first natural child, his private life is not well known.

TURNER, EUROPEAN TRAVELLER

The 1802 "Treaty of Amiens", which temporarily put an end to the Napoleonic war between France and England, allows Turner to go for the first time on the Continent to visit France , where he stays in Calais, Paris - where he studies the Old Masters at the Louvre Museum -, and in Savoy area. Then he moves to Switzerland in Piedmont area.

Turner will always assiduously practice literature and poetry , which formed an important part of his inspiration, and will frequently quote Byron or Milton in the titles of his works.

VENICE'S LIGHT

In 1826, Turner went for a long journey in the Loire Valley, going upstream the Loire River from Nantes to Orléans .

TURNER, PRE-IMPRESSIONIST ROMANTIC PAINTER

In 1833, Turner leaves for his second stay in Venice . He will return for the third and last time to Venice in 1840. Venice has inspired him many major paintings such as "The Grand Canal, Venice" - 1835 or " The Dogana, San Giorgio, Citella, from the Steps of the Europa" - 1842.

In 1837, he publishes " The Rivers of France ", where his views of the Seine and Loire rivers have been brought together.

TURNER DEFENDED BY RUSKIN

TURNER'S RETREAT IN CHELSEA

In 1846, Turner left his house in Queen Anne Street, built in 1812, ceased any contact with his relationships, changed his name and moved into a poor lodgment in Chelsea, on the other side of Westminster. There he will spend the last years of his life, in a complete loneliness, unreachable, not even recognized by his hostess.

In 1847, within Robert Vernon 's bequest of contemporary paintings to the National Gallery, a first oil work of Turner enters English national collection.

In 1850, Turner exhibits at the Royal Academy 4 of his last paintings in the manner of Claude Lorrain .

TURNER'S BEQUEST

In 1861, only ten years after his death, a gallery in the West wing of the National Gallery will be entirely devoted to Turner's works.

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William Turner - A short biography

• 5 Minutes. Short on time - long on info!
• By: George Fritsche
• Narrated by: George Fritsche
• Length: 5 mins

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William Turner, English painter and inventor of the abstract: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

• Unabridged Audiobook
• Categories: Biographies & Memoirs

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