J. M. W. Turner(1775 — 1851)
Joseph Mallord William Turner
royaume de Grande-Bretagne, Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande
8 min read
British painter and engraver (1775-1851), Turner is considered the master of Romantic landscape. A forerunner of Impressionism, he revolutionized the depiction of light, water, and atmosphere.
Famous Quotes
« I did not paint to be understood; I painted what I saw. »
Key Facts
- 1775: Born in London in the Covent Garden district
- 1789: Admitted to the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of 14
- 1802: Elected a full member of the Royal Academy
- 1844: Painted 'Rain, Steam and Speed', a masterpiece on industrial modernity
- 1851: Died in London, leaving nearly 550 oil paintings and 2,000 watercolors
Works & Achievements
A vast panoramic canvas blending ancient history with a raging Romantic landscape. Turner depicts nature crushing human ambition, painted at the height of the Napoleonic era.
Considered the greatest British painting, this canvas shows the famous warship being towed to her last berth to be broken up by a steam tug. It symbolizes the end of an era in the face of the triumph of industry.
A work of moral engagement depicting enslaved people thrown overboard during a storm. Painted at the heart of the abolitionist debate, it is one of Turner's rare and explicit political statements.
A near-abstract, swirling canvas in which steam, snow, and sea merge into one. Turner claimed to have had himself lashed to the mast of a ship to observe the scene: “I did not paint it to be understood, but I wished to show what such a scene was like.”
A prophetic vision of modernity: a train bursts out of a bridge through a golden haze. One of the first great depictions of the Industrial Revolution in the history of painting.
An unfinished canvas of remarkable abstraction for its time, in which forms and colors dissolve into the light of dawn. It directly prefigures Impressionism and the abstract art of the 20th century.
Anecdotes
Turner was obsessed with direct observation of the natural elements. At the age of 67, he had himself lashed to the mast of a ship during a storm in the North Sea to experience the full force of the winds and waves. This extreme ordeal gave rise to one of his most celebrated paintings, “Snow Storm — Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth” (1842), which left the critics of his day utterly baffled.
Deeply solitary and secretive, Turner spent the last decade of his life in Chelsea under the assumed name of “Mr. Booth”, passing himself off as a simple retired sailor. His neighbours had no idea they were living next door to England’s most celebrated painter. It was only at his death in 1851 that his true identity was revealed, to the great scandal of the London press.
In 1819, on his first trip to Italy, Turner was literally dazzled by the light of Venice. He produced hundreds of sketches and watercolours within just a few weeks. Venice became a recurring subject in his work, a symbol of fleeting beauty and decline — he returned there twice more.
Turner bequeathed his entire body of work to the British nation — nearly 300 oil paintings and more than 30,000 watercolours and drawings. He wished for his works to remain together and be accessible to the public. Today, Tate Britain in London houses the largest collection of his works, known as the “Turner Bequest”.
The critic John Ruskin became Turner’s most ardent champion at a time when the press was mocking his later paintings, accusing the artist of covering his canvases with “soapsuds and whitewash”. In 1843, Ruskin published the first volume of his Modern Painters in defence of Turner’s genius. Turner, who rarely spoke about his work, sent him a heartfelt letter of thanks.
Primary Sources
“If you have ever wished to see what water is — real water, not a conventional painting of water — look at Turner.”
“I have worked every day since my arrival — I have filled whole sketchbooks — the light here is of a nature I could never have imagined had I stayed in England.”
“I desire that my finished pictures remain together and never be separated. I bequeath my finished paintings to the nation, on condition that a gallery be built to house them within ten years of my death.”
“The author was in this storm on the night the Steam Boat Ariel left Harwich.”
“The Sun is God.”
Key Places
A vibrant neighborhood where Turner was born in 1775, the son of a barber. This London childhood at the heart of a bustling district shaped his curiosity for crowds and urban light.
Turner visited Venice three times and made it one of his favorite subjects. The raking light on the canals and the melancholic beauty of the city inspired some of his greatest canvases.
The residence of Lord Egremont, Turner's patron and friend. Turner stayed there regularly and painted interior scenes bathed in golden light, exploring the effects of natural light in grand spaces.
Turner spent his final years in Chelsea under the assumed name of "Mr. Booth," in a modest house overlooking the Thames. It was there that he died in 1851, surrounded by his most abstract works.
The museum that today holds the largest collection of Turner's works in the world, in accordance with his wishes expressed in his will. The Turner galleries allow visitors to trace the full evolution of his style across sixty years of his career.