Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English
Romantic painter,
printmaker and
watercolourist
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative
landscapes
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...
and turbulent, often violent
marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper.
He was championed by the leading English art critic
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling
history painting.
Turner was born in
Maiden Lane, Covent Garden
Maiden Lane is a street in Covent Garden, London, that runs from Bedford Street in the west to Southampton Street in the east. The painter J. M. W. Turner was born in the street in 1775.
History
The street is based on an ancient track that r ...
, London, to a modest lower-middle-class family. He lived in London all his life, retaining his
Cockney accent
Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...
and assiduously avoiding the trappings of success and fame. A child prodigy, Turner studied at the
Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
from 1789, enrolling when he was 14, and exhibited his first work there at 15. During this period, he also served as an architectural draftsman. He earned a steady income from commissions and sales, which due to his troubled, contrary nature, were often begrudgingly accepted. He opened his own gallery in 1804 and became professor of
perspective at the academy in 1807, where he lectured until 1828. He travelled around Europe from 1802, typically returning with voluminous sketchbooks.
Intensely private, eccentric and reclusive, Turner was a controversial figure throughout his career. He did not marry, but fathered two daughters, Evelina (1801–1874) and Georgiana (1811–1843), by his housekeeper Sarah Danby. He became more pessimistic and morose as he got older, especially after the death of his father, when his outlook deteriorated, his gallery fell into disrepair and neglect, and his art intensified. In 1841, Turner rowed a boat into the
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
so he could not be counted as present at any property in that year's census. He lived in squalor and poor health from 1845, and died in London in 1851 aged 76. Turner is buried in
St Paul's Cathedral, London.
Biography
Early life
![DV307 no](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/DV307_no.70_House_where_Turner_was_born%2C_from_a_print.png)
Joseph Mallord William Turner was born on 23 April 1775 and baptised on 14 May. He was born in
Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, in London, England.
His father William Turner was a barber and wig maker.
His mother, Mary Marshall, came from a family of butchers. A younger sister, Mary Ann, was born in September 1778 but died in August 1783.
[ ]
Turner's mother showed signs of mental disturbance from 1785 and was admitted to
St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in Old Street in 1799. She was moved in 1800 to
Bethlem Hospital
Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is a psychiatric hospital in London. Its famous history has inspired several horror books, films and TV series, most notably ''Bedlam'', a 1946 film with Bo ...
, a
mental asylum
The lunatic asylum (or insane asylum) was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital.
The fall of the lunatic asylum and its eventual replacement by modern psychiatric hospitals explains the rise of organized, institutional psychiatry ...
, where she died in 1804. Turner was sent to his maternal uncle, Joseph Mallord William Marshall, a butcher in
Brentford
Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross.
Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...
, then a small town on the banks of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
west of London, where Turner attended school. The earliest known artistic exercise by Turner is from this period—a series of simple colourings of engraved plates from Henry Boswell's ''Picturesque View of the Antiquities of England and Wales''.
Around 1786, Turner was sent to
Margate
Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...
on the north-east
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
coast. There he produced a series of drawings of the town and surrounding area that foreshadowed his later work. By this time, Turner's drawings were being exhibited in his father's shop window and sold for a few
shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
s. His father boasted to the artist
Thomas Stothard
Thomas Stothard (17 August 1755 – 27 April 1834) was an English painter, illustrator and engraver.
His son, Robert T. Stothard was a painter ( fl. 1810): he painted the proclamation outside York Minster of Queen Victoria's accession to the t ...
that: "My son, sir, is going to be a painter". In 1789, Turner again stayed with his uncle who had retired to
Sunningwell (now part of
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
). A whole
sketchbook of work from this time in Berkshire survives as well as a
watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
of
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. The use of pencil sketches on location, as the foundation for later finished paintings, formed the basis of Turner's essential working style for his whole career.
Many early sketches by Turner were architectural studies or exercises in
perspective, and it is known that, as a young man, he worked for several architects including
Thomas Hardwick
Thomas Hardwick (1752–1829) was an English architect and a founding member of the Architects' Club in 1791.
Early life and career
Hardwick was born in Brentford, Middlesex the son of a master mason turned architect also named Thomas Hard ...
,
James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
and
Joseph Bonomi the Elder
Joseph Bonomi the Elder (19 January 17399 March 1808) was an Italian architect and draughtsman who spent most of his career in England where he became a successful designer of country houses.
Biography
He was born Giuseppe Bonomi in Rome on 19 ...
. By the end of 1789, he had also begun to study under the
topographical
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...
draughtsman
Thomas Malton
__NOTOC__
Thomas Malton (1748 – 7 March 1804; also known as Thomas Malton the Younger), was an English painter of topographical and architectural views, and an engraver. J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Girtin were amongst his pupils. He is de ...
, who specialised in London views. Turner learned from him the basic tricks of the trade, copying and colouring outline prints of British castles and
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conce ...
s. He would later call Malton "My real master". Topography was a thriving industry by which a young artist could pay for his studies.
Career
Turner entered the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
of Art in 1789, aged 14,
and was accepted into the academy a year later by
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depen ...
. He showed an early interest in architecture, but was advised by Hardwick to focus on painting. His first watercolour, ''A View of the Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth'' was accepted for the
Royal Academy summer exhibition
The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, s ...
of 1790 when Turner was 15.
As an academy probationer, Turner was taught drawing from plaster casts of antique sculptures. From July 1790 to October 1793, his name appears in the registry of the academy over a hundred times. In June 1792, he was admitted to the
life class
A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and postures using any of the drawing media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representation may range from highly detailed, ...
to learn to draw the human body from nude models. Turner exhibited watercolours each year at the academy while painting in the winter and travelling in the summer widely throughout Britain, particularly to
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
, where he produced a wide range of sketches for working up into studies and watercolours. These particularly focused on architectural work, which used his skills as a draughtsman. In 1793, he showed the watercolour titled ''The Rising Squall – Hot Wells from St Vincent's Rock Bristol'' (now lost), which foreshadowed his later climatic effects.
The British writer
Peter Cunningham, in his obituary of Turner, wrote that it was: "recognised by the wiser few as a noble attempt at lifting landscape art out of the tame insipidities...
ndevinced for the first time that mastery of effect for which he is now justly celebrated".
![Joseph Mallord William Turner - Fishermen at Sea - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner_-_Fishermen_at_Sea_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
In 1796, Turner exhibited ''
Fishermen at Sea'', his first oil painting for the academy, of a nocturnal moonlit scene of
the Needles
The Needles is a row of three stacks of chalk that rise about out of the sea off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight in the English Channel, United Kingdom, close to Alum Bay and Scratchell's Bay, and part of Totland, the westernmo ...
off the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
, an image of boats in peril. Wilton said that the image was "a summary of all that had been said about the sea by the artists of the 18th century". and shows strong influence by artists such as
Claude Joseph Vernet
Claude-Joseph Vernet (14 August 17143 December 1789) was a French painter. His son, Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, was also a painter.
Life and work
Vernet was born in Avignon. When only fourteen years of age he aided his father, Antoine Vernet ...
,
Philip James de Loutherbourg
Philip James de Loutherbourg RA (31 October 174011 March 1812), whose name is sometimes given in the French form of Philippe-Jacques, the German form of Philipp Jakob, or with the English-language epithet of the Younger, was a French-born Brit ...
,
Peter Monamy
Peter Monamy was an English marine painter who lived between 1681 and 1749.
Early life and family
Peter Monamy was baptised at the church of St Botolph's-without-Aldgate, London, England, on 12 January 1681 (new style). His name seems t ...
and
Francis Swaine, who was admired for his moonlight
marine paintings. The image was praised by contemporary critics and founded Turner's reputation as both an oil painter and a painter of maritime scenes.
![Portrait of J](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Portrait_of_J._M._W._Turner%2C_R.A._making_his_sketch_for_the_celebrated_picture_of_Mercury_%26_Argus_%284674619%29.jpg)
Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in
the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
in Paris in the same year. He made many visits to
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
. Important support for his work came from
Walter Ramsden Fawkes of
Farnley Hall, near
Otley
Otley is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at a bridging point on the River Wharfe, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically a part of the West Ridi ...
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 to it throughout his career. The stormy backdrop of ''
Hannibal Crossing The Alps'' is reputed to have been inspired by a storm over
the Chevin
The Chevin is the name given to the ridge on the south side of Wharfedale in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, overlooking the market town of Otley, and often known as Otley Chevin.
Etymology
The origins of the name ''Chevin'' are uncertain; the ...
in Otley while he was staying at Farnley Hall.
Turner was a frequent guest of
George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
, at
Petworth House
Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Sa ...
in West Sussex and painted scenes that Egremont funded taken from the grounds of the house and of the Sussex countryside, including a view of the Chichester Canal. Petworth House still displays a number of paintings.
Later life
As Turner grew older, he became more eccentric. He had few close friends except for his father, who lived with him for 30 years and worked 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 but had a relationship with an older widow, Sarah Danby. He is believed to have been the father of her two daughters Evelina Dupuis and Georgiana Thompson. Evelina married
Joseph Dupuis
Joseph Dupuis (1789–1874) was appointed as Consul and Vice-Consul for the British Government between 1811 and 1842, with various postings to Africa during that period, including one as Vice-Consul in Mogador. He was married to Evelina Danby, who ...
on 31 October 1817. It was recorded that her mother, Sarah Danby, was a witness along with Charles Thompson.
![Linnell - J](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Linnell_-_J.M.W._Turner.jpg)
Turner formed a relationship with Sophia Caroline Booth after her second husband died, and from 1846 he lived with her as "Mr Booth" or "Admiral Booth" in her house at 6 Davis's Place (now Cheyne Walk) in
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
, until his death in December 1851.
Turner was a habitual user of
snuff
Snuff may refer to:
Tobacco
* Snuff (tobacco), fine-ground tobacco, sniffed into the nose
** Moist snuff or dipping tobacco
** Creamy snuff, an Indian tobacco paste
Media and entertainment
* Snuff film, a type of film that shows a murder
Literat ...
; in 1838,
Louis Philippe I
Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France.
As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...
,
King of the French
The precise style of French sovereigns varied over the years. Currently, there is no French sovereign; three distinct traditions (the Legitimist, the Orleanist, and the Bonapartist) exist, each claiming different forms of title.
The three styles ...
presented a gold
snuff box
A decorative box is a form of packaging that is generally more than just functional, but also intended to be decorative and artistic. Many such boxes are used for promotional packaging, both commercially and privately. Historical objects are ...
to him. Of two other snuffboxes, an
agate
Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Anci ...
and silver example bears Turner's name, and another, made of wood, was collected along with his spectacles, magnifying glass and card case by an associate housekeeper.
Turner formed a short but intense friendship with the artist
Edward Thomas Daniell
Edward Thomas Daniell (6 June 180424 September 1842) was an English artist known for his etchings and the landscape paintings he made during an expedition to the Middle East, including Lycia, part of modern-day Turkey. He is associated with the ...
. The painter
David Roberts David or Dave Roberts may refer to:
Arts and literature
* David Roberts (painter) (1796–1864), Scottish painter
* David Roberts (art collector), Scottish contemporary art collector
* David Roberts (novelist), English editor and mystery writer ...
wrote of him that, "He adored Turner, when I and others doubted, and taught me to see & to distinguish his beauties over that of others ... the old man really had a fond & personal regard for this young clergyman, which I doubt he ever evinced for the other". Daniell may have supplied Turner with the spiritual comfort he needed after the deaths of his father and friends, and to "ease the fears of a naturally reflective man approaching old age". After Daniell's death in
Lycia
Lycia (Lycian language, Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 ''Trm̃mis''; el, Λυκία, ; tr, Likya) was a state or nationality that flourished in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC (as Lukka) to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean ...
at the age of 38, he told Roberts he would never form such a friendship again.
Before leaving for the Middle East, Daniell commissioned his portrait from
John Linnell
John Sidney Linnell ( ; born June 12, 1959) is an American musician, known primarily as one half of the Brooklyn-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants with John Flansburgh, which was formed in 1982. In addition to singing and songwri ...
. Turner had previously refused to sit for the artist, and it was difficult to get his agreement to be portrayed. Daniell positioned the two men opposite each other at dinner, so that Linnell could observe his subject carefully and portray his likeness from memory.
Turner died of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
at the home of Sophia Caroline Booth, in
Cheyne Walk
Cheyne Walk is an historic road in Chelsea, London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It runs parallel with the River Thames. Before the construction of Chelsea Embankment reduced the width of the Thames here, it fronted ...
in Chelsea, on 19 December 1851.
He is buried in
St Paul's Cathedral, where he lies near the painter Sir
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...
. Apparently his last words were "The Sun (or Son?) is God", though this may be apocryphal.
Turner's friend, the architect
Philip Hardwick
Philip Hardwick (15 June 1792 in London – 28 December 1870) was an English architect, particularly associated with railway stations and warehouses in London and elsewhere. Hardwick is probably best known for London's demolished Euston Arch ...
, the son of his old tutor, was in charge of making the 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." Other executors were his cousin and chief mourner at the funeral, Henry Harpur IV (benefactor of
Westminster – now Chelsea & Westminster – Hospital), Revd. Henry Scott Trimmer,
George Jones RA and
Charles Turner ARA.
Art
Style
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". Turner was recognised as an artistic genius; the English art critic
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
described him as the artist who could most "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature". Turner's work drew criticism from contemporaries, in particular from
Sir George Beaumont, a landscape painter and fellow member of the Royal Academy, who described his paintings as "blots".
Turner's imagination was sparked by shipwrecks, fires (including the
burning of Parliament in 1834, an event which Turner witnessed first-hand, and transcribed in a series of watercolour sketches), 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's major venture into printmaking was the ''
Liber Studiorum
''Liber Studiorum'' () is a collection of prints by J. M. W. Turner. The collected works included seventy-one prints that he worked on and printed from 1807 to 1819. For the production of the prints, Turner created the etchings for the prints, ...
'' (Book of Studies), seventy prints that he worked on from 1806 to 1819. The ''Liber Studiorum'' was an expression of his intentions for landscape art. The idea was loosely based on
Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...
's ''
Liber Veritatis
The ''Liber Veritatis'', meaning ''Book of Truth'' in Latin, is a book of drawings recording his completed paintings made by Claude Lorrain, known in English as "Claude". Claude was a landscape painter in Rome, who began keeping this record i ...
'' (Book of Truth), where Claude had recorded his completed paintings; a series of print copies of these drawings, by then at
Devonshire House
Devonshire House in Piccadilly, was the London townhouse of the Dukes of Devonshire during the 18th and 19th centuries. Following a fire in 1733 it was rebuilt by William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, in the Palladian style, to designs ...
, had been a huge publishing success. Turner's plates were meant to be widely disseminated, and categorised the genre into six types: Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, Historical, Architectural, and Elevated or Epic Pastoral. His printmaking was a major part of his output, and a museum is devoted to it, the Turner Museum in
Sarasota
Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...
, Florida, founded in 1974 by Douglass Montrose-Graem to house his collection of Turner prints.
His early works, such as ''
Tintern Abbey
Tintern Abbey ( cy, Abaty Tyndyrn ) was founded on 9 May 1131 by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow. It is situated adjacent to the village of Tintern in Monmouthshire, on the Welsh bank of the River Wye, which at this location forms the bo ...
'' (1795), stay true to the traditions of English landscape. In ''
Hannibal Crossing the Alps'' (1812), an emphasis on the destructive power of nature has 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.
In Turner's 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
''Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway'' is an oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting o ...
'', where the objects are barely recognisable. The intensity of hue and interest in evanescent light not only placed Turner's work in the vanguard of English painting but exerted an influence on art in France; the
Impressionists
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
, particularly
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. Durin ...
, carefully studied his techniques. He is also generally regarded as a precursor of abstract painting.
High levels of volcanic ash (from the eruption of
Mount Tambora
Mount Tambora, or Tomboro, is an active stratovolcano in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Located on Sumbawa in the Lesser Sunda Islands, it was formed by the active subduction zones beneath it. Before 1815, its elevation reached more than ...
) in the atmosphere during 1816, the "
Year Without a Summer
The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by . Summer temperatures in Europe were the extreme weather, coldest on record between the years of 1 ...
", led to unusually spectacular sunsets during this period, and were an inspiration for some of Turner's work.
John Ruskin said that an early patron,
Thomas Monro, Principal Physician of
Bedlam, and a collector and amateur artist, 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 his friend Girtin, 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.
Together with a number of young artists, Turner was able, in Monro's London house, to copy works of the major topographical draughtsmen of his time and perfect his skills in drawing. But the curious atmospherical effects and illusions of
John Robert Cozens
John Robert Cozens (1752 – 14 December 1797) was a British draftsman and painter of romantic watercolour landscapes.
Cozens executed watercolors in curious atmospheric effects and illusions which had an influence on Thomas Girtin and J.M. ...
's watercolours, some of which were present in Monro's house, went far further than the neat renderings of topography. The solemn grandeur of his Alpine views were an early revelation to the young Turner and showed him the true potential of the watercolour medium, conveying mood instead of information.
Materials
Turner experimented with a wide variety of pigments. He used formulations like
carmine, despite knowing that they were not long-lasting, and against the advice of contemporary experts to use more durable pigments. As a result, many of his colours have now faded. Ruskin complained at how quickly his work decayed; Turner was indifferent to posterity and chose materials that looked good when freshly applied. By 1930, there was concern that both his oils and his watercolours were fading.
Gallery
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - Clare Hall and King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, from the Banks of the River Cam - Google Art Project.jpg, Clare Hall and King's College Chapel, Cambridge, from the Banks of the River Cam, 1793, watercolour
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner 024.jpg, ''Calais Pier'', 1801, oil on canvas, National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...
, London
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - Dutch Boats in a Gale - WGA23163.jpg, ''Dutch Boats in a Gale'', 1801, oil on canvas. For his painting Turner drew inspiration from the art of Willem van de Velde the Younger
Willem van de Velde the Younger (18 December 1633 (baptised)6 April 1707) was a Dutch marine painter, the son of Willem van de Velde the Elder, who also specialised in maritime art. His brother, Adriaen van de Velde, was a landscape painter.
...
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner 081.jpg, '' Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps'', 1812, oil on canvas, Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
File:DortorDordrecht.jpg, '' Dort or Dordrecht: The Dort packet-boat from Rotterdam becalmed'', 1818, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16 October 1834 - 1942.647 - Cleveland Museum of Art.jpg , ''The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16 October 1834'', oil on canvas, Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner, English - The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, October 16, 1834 - Google Art Project.jpg, '' The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October, 1834'', 1835, oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art
File:Wreckers Coast of Northumberland Joseph Mallord William Turner.jpeg, ''Wreckers Coast of Northumberland'', 1836, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art
File:Chicago art inst turner vallee aoste.JPG, ''Valley of Aosta: Snowstorm, Avalanche and Thunderstorm'', 1836–37, oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
File:The Fighting Temeraire, JMW Turner, National Gallery.jpg, ''The Fighting Temeraire
''The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by the English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time ...
tugged to her last berth to be broken up'', 1838, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London
File:Slave-ship.jpg, '' The Slave Ship'', 1840, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth - WGA23178.jpg, '' Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth'', 1842, oil on canvas, Tate Britain
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Evening of the Deluge, c. 1843, NGA 46064.jpg, ''The Evening of the Deluge'', 1843, National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
, Washington D.C.
File:Turner - Rain, Steam and Speed - National Gallery file.jpg, ''Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway
''Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway'' is an oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting o ...
'', 1844, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - Norham Castle, Sunrise - WGA23182.jpg, ''Norham Castle, Sunrise
''Norham Castle, Sunrise'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by English painter J. M. W. Turner, created around 1845. The painting depicts Norham Castle, overlooking the River Tweed, the border between England and Scotland. The painting was bequeath ...
'', 1845, oil on canvas, Tate Britain
File:Venice - The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1834, oil on canvas, view 2 - National Gallery of Art, Washington - DSC00005.JPG, ''Venice - The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore'', 1834, National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
, Washington D.C.
Legacy
Turner left a small fortune which he hoped would be used to support what he called "decayed artists". He planned an almshouse at
Twickenham
Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...
with a gallery for some of his works. His will was contested and in 1856, after a court battle, his first cousins, including
Thomas Price Turner
Thomas Price Turner (bapt. 17 January 1790 – 18 February 1868) was an English classical musician, and was one of the artist J. M. W. Turner's first cousins.The Great Artists: JMW Turner R.A. William Cosmo Monkhouse 1879 Following the artist's d ...
, received part of his fortune.
Another portion went to the Royal Academy of Arts, which occasionally awards students the Turner Medal. His finished paintings were bequeathed to the British nation, and he intended that a special gallery would be built to house them. This did not happen due to disagreement over the final site. 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.
One of the greatest collectors of his work was
Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan (17 April 1621 – 23 April 1695) was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author and translator writing in English, and a medical physician. His religious poetry appeared in ''Silex Scintillans'' in 1650, with a second part in 1655.''Oxfo ...
who when he died in 1899 owned more than one hundred watercolours and drawings by Turner and as many prints. His collection included examples of almost every type of work on paper the artist produced, from early topographical drawings and atmospheric landscape watercolours, to brilliant colour studies, literary vignette illustrations and spectacular exhibition pieces. It included nearly a hundred proofs of
Liber Studiorum
''Liber Studiorum'' () is a collection of prints by J. M. W. Turner. The collected works included seventy-one prints that he worked on and printed from 1807 to 1819. For the production of the prints, Turner created the etchings for the prints, ...
and twenty-three drawings connected with it. It was an unparalleled collection that comprehensively represented the diversity, imagination and technical inventiveness of Turner's work throughout his sixty-year career. Vaughan bequeathed the most of his Turner collection to British and Irish public galleries and museums, stipulating that the collections of Turner's watercolours should be 'exhibited to the public all at one time, free of charge and only in January', demonstrating an awareness of conservation which was unusual at the time.
In 1910, the main part of the Turner Bequest, which includes unfinished paintings and drawings, was rehoused in the Duveen Turner Wing at the National Gallery of British Art (now
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
). In 1987, a new wing at the Tate, the
Clore Gallery
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in E ...
, was opened to house the Turner bequest, though some of the most important paintings remain in the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...
in contravention of Turner's condition that they be kept and shown together. Increasingly paintings are lent abroad, ignoring Turner's provision that they remain constantly and permanently in Turner's Gallery.
St. Mary's Church, Battersea added a commemorative stained glass window for Turner, between 1976 and 1982. St Paul's Cathedral, Royal Academy of Arts and the
Victoria & Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
all hold statues representing him. A portrait by Cornelius Varley with his patent
graphic telescope
The graphic telescope is a type of camera lucida that has the power of a telescope. It was invented by Cornelius Varley in 1809. It can be used to draw broad landscapes.
Graphic telescopes allow the size of the projected image to be adjusted. They ...
(
Sheffield Museums & Galleries) was compared with his death mask (
National Portrait Gallery, London) by Kelly Freeman at Dundee University 2009–10 to ascertain whether it really depicts Turner. The
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...
unveiled a memorial plaque at the site of his birthplace at 21 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden 2 June 1999.
Selby Whittingham founded The Turner Society at London and Manchester in 1975. After the society endorsed the Tate Gallery's Clore Gallery wing (on the lines of the Duveen wing of 1910), as the solution to the controversy of what should be done with the Turner Bequest, Selby Whittingham resigned and founded the Independent Turner Society. The Tate created the prestigious annual
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...
art award in 1984, named in Turner's honour, and 20 years later the
Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours founded the
Winsor & Newton
Winsor & Newton (also abbreviated W&N) is an English manufacturing company based in London that produces a wide variety of fine art products, including acrylics, oils, watercolour, gouache, brushes, canvases, papers, inks, graphite and colour ...
Turner Watercolour Award. A major exhibition, "Turner's Britain", with material (including ''The Fighting Temeraire'') on loan from around the globe, was held at
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, local ...
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 #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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.
. The programme aired on 17 December 1974, during the Turner Bicentenary Exhibition in London. British filmmaker
'', a biopic of Turner's later years, released in 2014. The film starred
as Turner, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey and Paul Jesson, and premiered in competition for the ''
, with Spall taking the award for Best Actor.
announced that a portrait of Turner, with a backdrop of ''The Fighting Temeraire'', would appear on the £20 note beginning in 2020. It is the first £20
.