J M W Turner

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J M W Turner

• Painter of Light

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Early Life
Joseph William Mallord Turner was born in London
in 1775. As a young boy he showed great talent as
an artist and by the age of fifteen hed had one
of his pictures shown at the Royal Academy, which
was really a big fancy art show.
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Turner as a young man

• He began his career as an artist at 14.
• Turner learned fast and worked hard.
• His work was in demand and earning him money
  while he was young.

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Watercolours

• Nearly all his early works were drawings or
  watercolours.
• This is a 1795 watercolour of Rochester Castle.
• They were popular for book illustrations.

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His Style

• Two things interested him more than anything else
  when he was painting.
• These were LIGHT and COLOUR.
• Details were not so important to Turner.

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Seascapes S
Seascapes
Turner was fascinated by the sea and he painted
this subject many times. He also found rivers,
canals and all types of boats and ships to be of
great interest to him. You will find that nearly
all Turners paintings include water. His style
seems brilliantly suited to painting it. Perhaps
the person who best described Turners style was
another great painter, Constable, who said that
he seemed to paint with tinted steam. This
comment by another of the greatest English
artists gives a wonderful idea of the light,
almost magical quality of Turners work.
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The Fighting Temeraire
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The Fighting Temeraire

• This is one of his most well known and beautiful
  paintings.
• It shows a famous warship being towed away to be
  scrapped.
• This painting is in the National Gallery in
  London.

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Turners influence
Turner was not only very successful during his
lifetime, he was also an important influence on
artists who came after him. A group of artists
known as the Impressionists were certainly
influenced by his style. In a letter signed by
many of the most important Impressionist
painters, including Degas, Monet and Renoir, it
stated that they had been led along their
artistic path by the illustrious Turner.
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Turner in later life

• He became a lonely and rather sad old man.
• Turner did keep on painting.
• He called himself Mr.Booth to avoid attention.

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Turner at work

• This does not give a true idea of how he worked.
• He was really very secretive.
• Turner did not let himself be watched while
  painting.

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Criticism of Turner

• This painting called Snowstorm was dismissed as
  soapsuds and whitewaash by one art critic.
• Many people found his style too strange and
  different from other artists.

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Rain, Steam and Speed
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Rain, Steam and Speed

• To prepare for this painting Turner stuck his
  head out of a train window for ten minutes during
  a storm.
• This is one of his later works painted when he
  was almost seventy.
• It is free for anyone to see in the National
  Gallery in London.

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The Vaughan Bequest
This is a collection of drawings and watercolours
that were given to art galleries around the
country about a hundred years ago. These works
by Turner can be seen free at the National
Gallery of Scotland, but to protect them from too
much light they are only shown in the month of
January. There are almost forty works in the
collection.
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The National Gallery of Scotland
This great art gallery is free to enter and there
you can see many wonderful paintings by some of
the worlds most famous artists. Try to look out
for Turners oil painting of Rome. If you want to
see the Turner watercolours remember that they
are only on view in January.