Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)
J. M. W. Turner (his professional name) was a painter in the Romantic style, printmaker, and watercolorist.
A child prodigy, in 1789, at the age of fourteen, Turner was admitted to Joshua Reynold’s studio as a copyist and then to the Royal Academy Schools (RA). Between 1790 and 1804, Turner’s work earned him an associate and then full membership to the RA. He opened his own shop in 1804. He abandoned romantic and classical landscapes and devoted himself to a series of works in which atmospheric conditions became the principal subject matter, a forerunner to the French Impressionists.
Turner believed that his works should always express significant historical, mythological, literary, and other narrative themes. Two of Turner’s most daring paintings were Steamer in Snowstorm and Landscape. The style of these works was not understood by his contemporaries. Turner was championed by John Ruskin, the leading English art critic.
He was a revolutionary figure in the art of landscape painting. He was unmatched in his time in the range of his development, unrivaled in the breath of his subject matter, and the searching innovation of his stylistic treatment. He is regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivaling history painting.
