Joseph Mallord William Turner

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Born: 1775

Died: 1851

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November 20, 2024

Summary of Joseph Mallord William Turner

Turner injected traditional genres and situations with a new dynamism in painting, such as the majestic landscape in well-designed compositions and large-scale historical events. He focused on the growing importance of personal experience throughout the Enlightenment era, when human perceptions led to exquisite personal experiences and connections with nature. He helped establish the cross-disciplinary creative movement of Romanticism by devoting himself to depicting heightened states of awareness and being, paving the way for further advancements in painting subjective experiences that would lead to Impressionism. Particularly in several of his later pieces.

He neglected and even exploded the exact representation of details and static situations that previous generations’ masters and colleagues still attempted in pursuit of larger subjective effects. Instead, he used painting methods to depict perceptions of closely observed nature, resulting in swirling clouds of varying light and vivid arrays of colour dabbed in oil. Many of these paint methods for evoking “Sublime” feelings would become the content and subject matter of the Abstract Expressionism group of painters.

Many of his paintings included scenes that emphasised nature’s strength in ways that had not before been shown, making the human form and all that society had constructed look little and frail in comparison.

In comparison to what had existed before or during his time, Turner helped establish landscape painting – and notably its water-based counterpart, seascapes – as an aesthetic discipline worthy of greater attention and investigation.

Turner also used novel themes from the modern industrial era in his artworks, such as steamships and railways, foreshadowing a recurring fascination with these aspects of modern life that would be reflected in later generations of visual artists, from the Futurists to muralists like Diego Rivera to contemporary artists like Matthew Barney.

Childhood

Mallord, Joseph Although William Turner’s exact birthdate is unknown, he was christened on May 14, 1775. His father, William Turner, worked as a barber and wig maker, and his mother, Mary Marshall, was a butcher’s daughter. Mary Ann, his younger sister, was born in September 1778 but died at the age of five.

Turner was transferred to live with an uncle in Brentford, Middlesex, at the age of eleven, due to his mother’s mental illness. Brentford is a tiny town on the banks of the Thames, west of London. Turner began his creative career in Brentford by colouring a series of etched plates.

Later, in 1786, he was moved to Margate, where he went to school and began to sketch the town and its environs. His father displayed these sketches in his business in London and sold them for a few pence apiece. Throughout his career, he would draw the town and landscape and subsequently create full paintings from the location sketches. He remained a Londoner throughout his life, despite living in various parts of the city and subsequently travelling extensively, and never lost his Cockney accent. Turner, unlike many of his predecessors, did not develop an elitist demeanour as he rose through the ranks of the industry.

In comparison, John Constable famously clamoured for social prestige by actually dislodging a Turner painting from a Royal Academy show and replacing it with one of his own. Turner spent time in the company of noble patrons, but he preferred to return to his humbler homes in Chelsea and Margate, even later in life, while also wandering aimlessly around the countryside and along the coast in search of stunning themes in nature.

Early Life

Turner worked with a topographical draughtsman and made architectural drawings for various architects early in his career. As a result, architectural motifs appeared in many of his early sketches and paintings. He enrolled in the famous Royal Academy of Art at the age of 14 and was admitted as a member a year later. The Academy, which was founded by an act of King George III in 1768, was a significant broker of taste as well as a vital node in the network of prospective sales and commissioning for its artist members, particularly from the Royal Family and aristocracy. Despite his passion in architecture, architect Thomas Hardwick urged him to pursue painting.

Turner created watercolours during this time period, which were shown at the Academy every year. In the winter, he painted, and in the summer, he travelled around England and Wales. Fishermen at Sea, his first oil painting, was shown at the Royal Academy in 1796. It was a moonlight nocturnal scene, a popular kind of midnight painting at the period. This painting was well received, and it established him as an oil painter as well as a depictor of marine settings.

Turner was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1799, when he was 24 years old. He painted a favourable self-portrait at this time, implying that he had “arrived.” He was made a full academician in 1802. He received more notoriety in 1807, when he was named professor of perspective at the age of 32. By 1800, he was financially secure and had relocated to Harley Street in London, where he shared a flat with J.T. Serres, an elder maritime painter. He founded a gallery on Harley and Queen Anne Street in 1804, where he displayed his art.

In 1802, he extended his journey to the European continent, stopping in France and Switzerland. This trip was funded by a group of noblemen, and he was given a French-speaking guide and a small bus. During the voyage, he painted Calais Pier (1802-3) and created over 400 sketches, which he recorded with his painting.

Mid Life

Turner attempted to perfect other styles he liked in his early works, such as Willem van der Velde’s and Claude Lorrain’s realistic, ordered pictorial approaches, but by 1805, his oil drawings and paintings like The Shipwreck revealed his own unique approach to landscapes and seascapes. His art grew more ethereal and bright as he approached his late 30s. He began to concentrate his efforts on showing the power of nature and man’s insignificance in the face of it in works such as Snowstorm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (1812), while also producing a historical depiction.

Turner was free to go abroad again when the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815. He travelled to Italy for the first time in the summer of 1819, visiting Rome, Naples, Florence, and Venice. He drew around 1,500 sketches during this time, from which he created many paintings. These works, such as The Grand Canal, Venice (1835), demonstrate a shift in his colour palette, with numerous translucent layers, warm and cold hues forming shape, and a broader spectrum in general.

Turner was very secretive about his personal life, and as he grew older, he became more strange. He had few personal friends, but his father, who had lived with him for 30 years and worked as his studio assistant, cook, and gardener, was one of them. In 1804, his mother died, most likely in a Bethlem mental institution. Turner was depressed after his father died in 1829. He had two children, Eveline and Georgianna, with an older widow, Sarah Danby, despite the fact that he never married. “Woman is doubtful love” Turner wrote in one of his sketchbooks, and there is some indication that the true mother of his daughters was Sarah Danby’s niece, who worked as his maid for a while.

Late Life

In his later years, Turner continued to travel, visiting Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Denmark, and Czechoslovakia. He drew nonstop during his travels, and his gift comprised roughly 19,000 drawings. With fewer details, his paintings became more flowing and evocative. The Fighting Temeraire hauled to her last berth to be broken up (1839) and Rain, Steam, and Speed – the Great Western Railway are two instances from this time period (1844). Turner’s response to the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution was captured in these paintings. Turner’s creative approach in his latter paintings was widely attacked, but John Ruskin, an English art critic and long-time fan of Turner’s work, defended him by releasing Modern Painters (1843-60). Turner’s last exhibition at the Royal Academy was in 1850.

Turner died on December 19, 1851, in Chelsea’s Cheyne Walk, and is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral. He gave his finished works to the National Gallery and used the majority of his money to create a foundation for “decayed artists,” As a consequence of family litigation, they acquired a large portion of the money, and both the completed and unfinished works became national property under the moniker The Turner Bequest. The Tate Britain now houses the majority of Turner’s paintings, with the National Gallery holding a few notable works.

Turner’s influence on artists has lasted more than two centuries: his depiction of the conflict people faced when confronted with the results of their own machine creations in the modern period was an early attempt to connect with the world-changing Industrial Revolution. His method of depiction was even more influential: impressionistic representations of natural occurrences that communicated interior psychological feelings to the point of extreme, unusually early abstraction – to a degree that artists would only grapple with again more than a century later.

Famous Art by Joseph Mallord William Turner

Dutch Boats in a Gale (‘The Bridgewater Sea Piece’)

1801

The third Duke of Bridgewater commissioned Dutch Boats in a Gale as a companion piece to Willem van de Velde the Younger’s 17th-century seascape Ships on a Stormy Sea. Turner depicts gloomy skies and a stormy sea with boats labouring in the choppy water in this painting. Turner’s boats, in contrast to the companion work, appear bound to clash, giving a feeling of peril. This painting from 1801 shows the influence of Dutch artists on Turner’s early work, yet it already has the turbulence that would become one of Turner’s trademarks.

The Fighting Temeraire Tugged To Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up

1839

Turner shows a formerly strong and majestic battleship being hauled to its last destination to be broken up for scrap in The Fighting Temeraire. The ship appears like a ghost in the background of the image, being towed by a tiny, shadowy steam-powered tugboat. The sails of the other vessels create a triangle inside a bigger triangle of blue sky in the backdrop. The sun is sinking behind the Temeraire, and the moon is casting a ray across the river. The end of a period, the end of heroic strength, and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution are all represented in this picture. The huge sailing vessels of the past were being replaced by steam-powered vessels.

Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway

1844

This artwork portrays a steam-powered train rushing away from London crossing a contemporary bridge. An older bridge can be seen in the distance, and a tiny hare can be seen in the lower right. Some argue that the hare is not just a sign of speed in nature, but also a warning from Turner about the risks of technology destroying nature in its quest for advancement. The train’s smokestack is the sole highly detailed element of the picture, demonstrating Turner’s ability to produce dramatic works with minimal detail.

BULLET POINTED (SUMMARISED)

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Turner injected traditional genres and situations with a new dynamism in painting, such as the majestic landscape in well-designed compositions and large-scale historical events.
He focused on the growing importance of personal experience throughout the Enlightenment era, when human perceptions led to exquisite personal experiences and connections with nature.

He helped establish the cross-disciplinary creative movement of Romanticism by devoting himself to depicting heightened states of awareness and being, paving the way for further advancements in painting subjective experiences that would lead to Impressionism.
Particularly in several of his later pieces.
He neglected and even exploded the exact representation of details and static situations that previous generations’ masters and colleagues still attempted in pursuit of larger subjective effects.

Instead, he used painting methods to depict perceptions of closely observed nature, resulting in swirling clouds of varying light and vivid arrays of colour dabbed in oil.
Many of these paint methods for evoking “Sublime” feelings would become the content and subject matter of the Abstract Expressionism group of painters.
Many of his paintings included scenes that emphasised nature’s strength in ways that had not before been shown, making the human form and all that society had constructed look little and frail in comparison.

In comparison to what had existed before or during his time, Turner helped establish landscape painting – and notably its water-based counterpart, seascapes – as an aesthetic discipline worthy of greater attention and investigation.
Turner also used novel themes from the modern industrial era in his artworks, such as steamships and railways, foreshadowing a recurring fascination with these aspects of modern life that would be reflected in later generations of visual artists, from the Futurists to muralists like Diego Rivera to contemporary artists like Matthew Barney.