Joseph William Mallord Turner 1775 1851 Northern International

Joseph William Mallord Turner (1775 -1851) Northern International University, The English Language Department, 2005. All rights reserved.

Joseph Mallord William Turner British, 1775 - 1851 Turner was born on Maiden Lane in Covent Garden, London, in 1775 (the actual day is uncertain, but Turner maintained it was Saint George's Day, 23 April), the only son of William Turner and Mary Marshall. His mother, who was mentally unstable, was committed to Bethlem asylum for the insane in 1800, and died in 1804. During his only sister's fatal illness (she died in 1786) Turner was sent to live with his mother's brother in Brentford and attended Brentford Free School; this was his only formal education. His early artistic talent was encouraged by his father, who exhibited his drawings in his shop window (the father remained a devoted supporter and, later, was his son's studio assistant and general factotum until his death in 1829). In 1789, the year of his first extant sketchbook from nature, Turner entered the Royal Academy Schools, also working at about this time in the studio of the architectural draftsman and topographer Thomas Malton. He exhibited his first watercolor at the Royal Academy in 1790 and his first oil in 1796; thereafter he exhibited nearly every year until a year before his death. He stayed with his father's friend, John Narraway, in Bristol in 1791, and from then on until the end of the Napoleonic Wars made frequent summer sketching tours in various parts of Britain. In 1794 he published his first two engravings, and in 1798 began drawings for The Oxford Almanack. Probably beginning in 1794 he worked for three years at Dr. Monro's evening "academy" in the company of Thomas Girtin, Edward Dayes, and others. Turner's precocity led to his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1799, and to full Academicianship in 1802. He revered the Academy all his life, was assiduous as a member of the council and hanging committee and as auditor of the accounts, and was proud to be appointed its professor of perspective in 1807, from 1811 until 1828 giving lectures that ranged widely over the problems of landscape painting. He moved from Maiden Lane to lodgings on Harley Street in 1799, opening his own gallery in contiguous premises on Queen Anne Street in 1804; this he enlarged between 1819 and 1822. In 1805 he took a house at Isleworth, keeping a second home on the riverside at intervals for the rest of his life (Upper Mall, Hammersmith, from 1806 to 1811; Sandycombe Lodge, Twickenham, from 1813 to about 1825; Cheyne Walk, from about 1846 onward). Turner made his first journey abroad in 1802, traveling through France to Switzerland, and studying in the Louvre on his return. In 1817 he visited the Low Countries and subsequently traveled more frequently on the Continent (until 1845), less frequently in the British Isles (until 1831). Between 1819 and 1820 he paid his first visit to Italy, staying principally in Venice and Rome; he revisited Venice in 1833, 1835 (probably), and 1840. He worked continuously for the publishers of illustrated books; his illustrations appeared at intervals between 1827 and 1835. Turner made his reputation as a topographical watercolorist, sketching from nature, mainly in pencil, the sketches serving as a repository of ideas of which he might make use months or even years afterward. He was determined to raise landscape painting to the level of ideal art, closer in the hierarchy of genres to history painting, and he experimented first in watercolor then in oils with many new techniques. For some twenty years, from about 1798, he maintained a liaison with Sarah Danby, with whom he had two daughters, but he never married. In old age, following the death of his father and close friends, he became increasingly pessimistic and morose, allowed the house and picture gallery on Queen Anne Street to become dilapidated, and finally lived largely in his cottage on Cheyne Walk, cared for by his housekeeper, Mrs. Booth. There he died on 19 December 1851. He was buried in Saint Paul's Cathedral, London. [This is an edited version of the artist's biography published, or to be published, in the NGA Systematic Catalogue] 2 Joseph William Mallord Turner

Tate Gallery. London 3 Fishermen at Sea 1696 Joseph William Mallord Turner

4 Chapel 1796 Joseph William Mallord Turner

5 Self-portrait ab. 1798 Joseph William Mallord Turner

6 Jezioro Buttermere 1798 Joseph William Mallord Turner

Windsor castle from the Meadow ab. 1807 7 Joseph William Mallord Turner

Tate Gallery, London. Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps. 1812 8 Joseph William Mallord Turner

Birkenhead, Williamson Art Gallery and Museum. 9 Vesuvius 1817 Joseph William Mallord Turner

10 Venice Sunrise 1819 Joseph William Mallord Turner

British Museum, London. Arundal Castle, with Rainbow 1824 11 Joseph William Mallord Turner

National gallery of Art, New York. Mortlake Terrace. 1827 12 Joseph William Mallord Turner

National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Alnwick castle, Northumberland 1825 -1828 13 Joseph William Mallord Turner

Tate Gallery, London 14 Chichester Canal 1828 Joseph William Mallord Turner

15 Bedroom ab. 1830 -1831 Joseph William Mallord Turner

16 Music Room 1830 -1835 Joseph William Mallord Turner

Yale Centre for British Art, New Heaven. Staffa, Fingal’s Cave. 1832 17 Joseph William Mallord Turner

Reproduced by kind permision of National gallery of Scotland Durham Cathedral 1835 18 Joseph William Mallord Turner

19 Venice Sunset 1835 Joseph William Mallord Turner

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 20 The Grand Canal in Venice 1835 Joseph William Mallord Turner

21 Fire in Parliament 1835 Joseph William Mallord Turner

National gallery of Art, New York. Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight. 1835 22 Joseph William Mallord Turner

23 W. Turner at Exhibition Opening Day 1836

Private collection, Japan. 24 Flint Castle 1838 Joseph William Mallord Turner

25 Ocean Fish drawing 1839 Joseph William Mallord Turner

26 Mountain Pink 1840 Joseph William Mallord Turner

Tate Gallery, London. Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) - the Morning after the Deluge – Moses Writing the Book of Genesis. 1843 27 Joseph William Mallord Turner

National gallery of Art, New York. The Evening of the Deluge. 1843 28 Joseph William Mallord Turner

New York. The Lake of Zug. 1843 29 Joseph William Mallord Turner

National gallery of Art, New York. The Doganna and Santa Maria della Salute. Venice. 1843 30 Joseph William Mallord Turner

The National Gallery of London. Rain, Steam, and Speed. The Great Western Railway. 1844 31 Joseph William Mallord Turner

Try and answer the following questions: n Why do some pieces have two names, like “Light and Colour, Cannibal… ? Why is “Light and Colour” in the first place, and the object indication itself is in the second? Compare the pieces “Venice Sunrise” (10) and “Venice Sunset” (19), “The Morning after the Deluge” (27) and “The Evening of the Deluge” (28). Why are the paintings often indistinct? What emotions are produced in the works and by what means? Could you distinguish Turner’s brush from Constable’s? How? What can you say of the subject matters of the two painters? n Which canvas did you like best? Why? n n n restart escape 32 Joseph William Mallord Turner