Joseph Mallord William Turner

 

  In my opinion, the artist is trying to communicate through his work the power of nature. In some of the paintings, the atmosphere is dark; in those kind of paintings, the power of man is equal to zero and the power of nature is shown in it’s full beauty. He placed human beings in many of his paintings to show his affection towards humanity (scenes of people drinking and merry-making or working in the foreground), but his vulnerability was the “Savage grandeur” of nature of the world. Through his work he tried to show a world unmastered by man and the evidence of God.

 

  Turner mainly used oil, but he used prints as well. Giving the fact that the paintings are immense, I think that he used big brushes, as well as small brushes for details. In his early paintings the paint looks carefully blended, but as we come to his late paintings the brush marks look like they were scratched. The paint also looks thin. As he aged more, his paintings become more and more simplified. In his early work, there is a clear depth, but in his late work, there isn’t a clear depth, although there is one. The colours he used resemble to the natural ones, although, in some of his painting the colours are slightly exaggerated. There is a wide range of colours used in his paintings, depending, of course, on the subject. For example in the famous “House Portraits” there are dark (cold) colours as, brown, black, but there are also light colours like yellow. The main colour used in this painting in green. In the painting “Dutch Boats in a Gale”, the main colour used is black, which makes this painting, from my point of view, a masterpiece. Usually the dark colours are at the bottom of the painting, at the top at lighter colours and in the middle are the really “fiery” ones. The texture seems rough. The subject is being viewed at eye level.

  I researched about this artist for my exam subject which referred to “Catastrophic events”. I was looking for some ideas about the sea or volcanos.

  Joseph Mallord William Turner (late April – early May 1775 – 19.12.1851) was an English painter, a British Romantic landscape painter, water – colourist and printmaker. He is considered the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Although he was well known for his artistic touch with the oil paints, he becomes one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is regarded as “the painter of light” and his work is known as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.

  As a result from a “fit of illness” in his family, he was sent to stay with his uncle. That’s when the first signs of the artistic touch occurred, being a series of simple colourings of engraved plates from Henry Boswell’s picturesque view of the Antiquities of England and Wales.

  Many sketches of Turner were architectural studies and/or exercises in perspective and it is known that as a young man he worked with several architects, including Thomas Hardwick Junior, James Wyatt and Joseph Bonomi the Elder. He also studied with Thomas Malton, whom Turner would later call “My real master”. In 1789 he entered the Royal Academy of Art, at the age of 14, and was accepted one year later, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the president of Royal Academy. His first watercolour painting – “A view of the Archbishop’s Palace, Lambeth” was accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1790, when turner was 15.

  Turner exhibited his first oil painting in 1796 – Fisherman at Sea (which is a painting of the moonlit scene off “The Needles, Isle of Wight”). Wilton said that the image”Is a summary of all that had been said about the sea by artists of the eighteen century”. The painting shows strong influence from artist such as Horace Vernet, Philip James de Loutherbourg, Peter Monamy and also Francis Swaine.

  As Turner grew old he became more sceptics: he had a few close friends except for his father, who lived with him for 30 years and worked as a studio assistant. His father’s death in 1892 had a profound effect on him, and therefore he was subject to bouts of depression. He never married but had a relationship with an older widow – Sarah Danby. He is believed to have been the father of her two daughters born in 1801 and 1811.

  Turner died in the house of his mistress. He is said to have uttered the last words “The Sun is God”. He was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral, at his requests, where he lies next to Sir Joshua Reynolds. His last exhibition was at the Royal Academy in 1850.