Fisherman at Sea, Fishing Fleet, Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus, The Grand Canal of Venice – do these paintings sound familiar to you? These works of art are created from the hands and mind of one of the most well known painters of the English history – Joseph Mallord William Turner.
Joseph Mallord William Turner or commonly known for J. M. W. Turner has made his way to artistic stardom through his landscape paintings. Born on the 23rd of April, 1775 at Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, England and the son of a barber named William Turner, from which he has attained most of his fundamental education since his mother died when he was still young.
A remarkable accomplishment of young Turner was during 1789 when he entered the Royal Academy of Art Schools at the mere age of 14. A year after studying in the academy, his watercolour work was included in the 1790 Summer Exhibition. On 1796, Turner exhibited his first oil painting titled “Fishermen at Sea”, and has afterwards exhibited his works almost annually at the academy. At the age of 18, young Turner set up his very own studio and was accepted as a full pledge member of the Royal Academy of Art schools during 1802.
Starting 1802, he has then travelled to Europe including France and Switzerland to continue his education in arts. Also in 1802, Turner enrolled in Louvre, Paris to study.
During his travel in Europe, he also visited Venice, where he became captivated with its seascapes and has devoted a part of his time on captivating the light patterns of colour on the waters. One of his famous works “A Stormy Scene” was inspired from one of his visits in Dorset, England. This painting is now exhibited in Cincinnati Art Museum.
At the age of 22, Turner visited Otley and was attracted to its environment as an inspiration for his painting works. The “Hannibal Crossing The Alps” was said to be inspired from one of his visits in Otley where there was a storm during his stay.
Despite the fact the Turner has used mainly oils in his works, it is quite undeniable that he is rather quite known for being a watercolourist and was been noted as one of the persons who established the English landscapes using watercolour painting.
Other than being noted as a popular watercolourist, Turner is also regarded to be an impressionist type of artist since he does not replicate what he saw, rather paints what he felt of the scene that he saw.
Joseph Mallord William Turner died on the 19th of December year 1851 at the age of 76, and was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral. He is said to have an estimated total of 300 paintings, 19,000 drawings, and about 20, 000 watercolours which was evidently displayed in the Clore Gallery at 1987 in accordance to Turner’s last will.
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