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Period: to
Romanticism Era
The term romantic first appeared in 18th-century English and originally meant "romancelike"-that is, resembling the fanciful character of medieval romances.
Themes: Libertarianism, Nature, The lure of the Exotic -
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Born in London, England -
Fun Fact
Drawing of St John's Church
created when Turner would have been 11 or 12 years old -
Early Life
Watercolor Turner entered the Royal Academy schools in 1789 and soon began exhibiting his watercolours there. He later then started touring the country in search of subjects, filling his sketchbooks with drawings to be worked up later into finished watercolours -
The start of his creations
From 1796 Turner exhibited oil paintings as well as watercolours at the Royal Academy. His work is characterised by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. Turner stays ture to the traditions of English landscape, emphasising on the power of nature. His distinctive style of painting, in which he used watercolour technique with oil paints, created lightness, fluency, and ephemeral atmospheric effects. -
Fisherman at Sea
Oil on canvas, 35 x 48 inch.
Tate Gallery, London First oil painting exhibited by Turner at the Royal Academy -
Dutch Boats in a Gale
Oil on canvas, 64 x 87 inch.
National Gallery, London -
The Shipwreck
Oil on canvas, 171 x 240 cm
Tate Gallery, London -
Snow Storm, Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps
Oil on canvas, 145 x 236,5 cm
Tate Gallery, London -
Frosty Morning
Oil on canvas, 114 x 175 cm
Tate Gallery, London -
Traveling abroad
815 allowed Turner to travel abroad. He was able to make trips to Waterloo and the Rhine, Italy, Naples, Florence, and Venice—and returned home in midwinter of 1819. During his journey he made about 1,500 drawings, and in the next few years he painted a series of pictures inspired by what he had seen. -
San Giorgio Maggiore at Dawn
Watercolour, 224 x 287 mm
Tate Gallery, London -
Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh
Watercolour on paper, 166 x 250 mm
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh Turner placed people in many of his paintings to indicate his affection for humanity, while showing the 'sublime' nature of the world. -
The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons
Oil on canvas, 92 x 123 cm
Museum of Art, Philadelphia -
Rain Steam and Speed the Great Western Railway
light was the emanation of God's spirit and this was why he focused the subject matter of his later paintings by leaving out distractions such as solid objects and detail, concentrating on the play of light on water, the radiance of skies and fires. He used oils ever more transparently, and turned to an evocation of almost pure light by use of shimmering colour. -
Norham Castle, Sunrise and Sunrise, with a Boat Between Headlands
his later work this precision is sacrificed to general effects of colour and light with the barest indication of mass. His composition tends to become more fluid, suggesting movement and space; some of his paintings are mere colour notations, barely tinted on a white ground -
End of his life
Turner died in Chelsea, London in 1851 and was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral. By his will he intended to leave most of his fortune of £140,000 to found a charity for “decayed artists,” and he bequeathed his finished paintings to the National Gallery, on condition that a separate gallery be built to exhibit them -
Influence of Turner
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, particularly Claude Monet, carefully studied his techniques Claude Monet
Sunrise
Oil
