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Turner
was only fourteen years old when he was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools.
He started his career by painting watercolours and producing mezzotints
under the strong influence of John Robert Cozen's work. Then, in 1796,
he launched into oil painting, working in the neoclassical manner of Richard
Wilson and Nicolas Poussin,
with results that found wide acclaim. He exhibited his first picture Fishermen
at Sea (1796) in the Royal Academy exhibition in 1796. He was
elected an Associate in 1799 and in 1802 a full member of the Royal Academy.
Turner was one of the most prolific painters of his time. He traveled extensively
in England, Scotland and Ireland, and also on the Continent (France, Belgium,
Holland, Germany, Italy).
In 1802, he visited Paris for the first time, where he studied the Old
Masters in the Louvre, above all Dutch seascapes and Claude Lorrain's compositions,
which lastingly influenced him. Turner's first private showing, at his
own house, took place in 1804. During this period, thanks to the increasing
concentration on the atmospheric effects of light, his original style began
to evolve, a process that culminated during trips to Italy between 1819
and 1829.
Like the works of Constable,
Turner's seemingly effortless watercolours and oil sketches were based
on impressions of nature. But his perception of the world differed vastly
from Constable's. Turner's pictures transcend ordinary appearances, conveying
a visionary sense of the forces at work in the universe.
In his atmospheric depictions of shipwrecks and natural disasters such
as The Shipwreck (1805), Snow
Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps (1812), A
Storm (Shipwreck) (1823), Shipwreck
off Hastings (c.1825), Fire at
Sea (1835), Snow Storm - Steam-Boat
off a Harbour's Mouth (1842) reality and fantasy merge and
colour is used to metaphorically evoke the power of natural phenomena.
By abandoning form or merely outlining it, Turner lent colour autonomy
and endowed it with a power of its own. This achievement was to be especially
influential on XX century art. Turner's other best works are The
Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory
(1806-1808), The Decline of the Carthaginian
Empire (1817), Childe Harold's
Pilgrimage (1823), A Ship Aground
(1828), The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to
Her Last Berth to Be Broken up (1838), Peace
- Burial at Sea (1842), The Dogana,
San Giorgio, Citella, From the Steps of the Europa (1842),
Light
and Colour (Goethe's Theory) - The Morning after the Deluge - Moses Writing
the Book of Genesis (1843), Rain,
Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844).
Bibliography:
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary.
Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
J.M.W.
Turner 'That Greatest of Landscape Painters': Watercolors from London Museums
by
Richard P. Townsend, J.M.W. Turner, Andrew Wilton, Philbrook muse, David
B. Brown. University of Washington Press, 1998.
Turner:
The Great Watercolours by Eric Shanes, J. M. W. Turner, Royal
Academy of Arts, Andrew Wilton, Ian Warrell. Harry N Abrams, 2000.
Turner:
The Late Seascapes by James Hamilton. Yale University Press,
2003.
The
Oxford Companion to J. M. W. Turner by Evelyn Joll, Martin
Butlin, Luke Herrmann. Oxford University Press, 2001.
The
Paintings of J. M. W. Turner (Studies in British Art) by Martin
Joll Butlin, J. M. W. Turner, Evelyn Joll. Yale University Press, 1984.
Turner
by James Hamilton. Random House, 2003.
Turner's
Britain by James Hamilton. Merrell Holberton, 2003.