J. M. W. Turner

England

Turner was the foremost English landscape painter and a forerunner of Impressionism.

💡 Did you know? The son of a London barber, he was exhibiting at the Royal Academy by the age of 14.

light and the forces of nature

Turner painted light, storms, mist and the unleashed forces of sea and sky.

💡 Did you know? According to legend he had himself lashed to a ship's mast in a storm.

dissolution of forms

In this he anticipated the Impressionists.

💡 Did you know? In Turner's late pictures ships and land dissolve almost into pure light and colour: an early step toward abstraction.

The Fighting Temeraire

A sooty steam tug tows it into the sunset: a farewell to the old age.

💡 Did you know? „The Fighting Temeraire“ (a proud sailing ship towed away to be broken up) was voted Britain's best-loved painting.

John Ruskin

Some mocked Turner's wild late works.

💡 Did you know? The critic John Ruskin passionately defended Turner against all mockers in his book „Modern Painters.“

1851

Turner died in London in 1851 and left the nation hundreds of paintings and thousands of watercolours and drawings.

💡 Did you know? Turner reportedly had himself lashed to a mast to experience and paint a snowstorm at sea firsthand.

Rain, Steam and Speed

Around 1844: a steam locomotive races through a glowing storm.

💡 Did you know? A steam engine races through rain across a bridge: one of the first great pictures of the railway age.

The Fighting Temeraire

Around 1839: a sailing ship towed into the sunset by a steam tug.

💡 Did you know? The contrast of old sailing ship and sooty steamer tells of an era's end: Turner's favourite picture, which he never sold.

The Slave Ship

Painted around 1840.

💡 Did you know? Turner shows slaves being thrown overboard: a blazing indictment of the slave trade.

Dido building Carthage

Painted around 1815.

💡 Did you know? Turner admired Claude Lorrain so much that he wished this picture hung beside a Claude in the museum.

The Battle of Trafalgar

Painted around 1823.

💡 Did you know? Turner's largest painting: a royal commission on England's most famous naval battle.

Snow Storm: Hannibal Crossing the Alps

Painted around 1812.

💡 Did you know? Not the soldiers but the raging snowstorm is the real hero of the picture.

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

Painted around 1842.

💡 Did you know? Turner claimed he had himself tied to a ship's mast for four hours in the storm to paint this.

Sunrise with Sea Monsters

Painted around 1845.

💡 Did you know? A late, almost abstract work in which everything dissolves into golden haze.

Fishermen at Sea

Painted around 1796.

💡 Did you know? Turner's first oil exhibited at the Academy: moonlight over a heaving sea.

Ulysses deriding Polyphemus

Painted around 1829.

💡 Did you know? A firework of colour: the ancient myth becomes an excuse for a glowing spectacle of light.

Dolbadarn Castle

Painted around 1800.

💡 Did you know? A darkly romantic Welsh castle ruin from Turner's early years.

Light and Colour (Goethe's Theory)

Painted around 1843.

💡 Did you know? Turner engaged with Goethe's theory of colour: here light swirls in pure hues.

J. M. W. Turner

William Turner (1775 to 1851) was the foremost English landscape painter of Romanticism, famous for his radiant pictures of light and nature.

💡 Did you know? Turner's late, almost abstract pictures were so far ahead of their time that many contemporaries thought them unfinished.