Author(s): Barry Venning

Art and Photography

From humble beginnings as the son of a London barber, J.M.W Turner (1775-1851) came to dominate British landscape painting in the first half of the 19th century. Turner achieved professional success and the admiration of his peers at a young age, and gained the place in the canon of European painting that he always desired. He measured himself against the Old Masters such as Claude Lorrain, yet his work, particularly the chromatic brilliance and unconventional compositions of his late paintings, has often been viewed from the perspective of its effect on later artists such as the Impressionists and the Abstract Expressionists. In this analysis of Turner's life and art, Barry Venning argues that to understand the painter's creative decisions and the problems with which he was faced, it is important to look at Turner's work in its original context. The early part of his career was dominated by the Napoleonic Wars, and he also witnessed agrarian change, industrialization, urban growth and constitutional reform, all of which are reflected in his work. Turner travelled extensively and studied natural phenomena, creating paintings as richly textured in meaning as visual effects.