JMW Turner

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THE LIFE OF JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (1775-1851)

After his election to the Royal Academy of Arts he was always known as J.M.W. Turner

The Life of Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in Covent Garden in London in 1775. He had various homes and lived in Chelsea toweards the end of his life where he died in 1851.

Art Education He displayed prodigious artistic abilities as a young child, Turner entered the Royal Academy Schools when he was just fourteen years old on 11 December 1789

Prominent member of the Royal Acdemy of Arts Aged 15 his paintings appeared in an important public exhibition, and he rapidly achieved prominence. He was elected A.R.A: 04 Nov 1799 and elected to the Royal Academy of Arts on 10 Feb 1802 and later became Professor of Perspective 1807-1837.

Turner the businessmanHe was known for his entrepreneurial cunning, demanding and receiving the highest prices for his work. In time he achieved great wealth.

Family Life His father was a barber and wig maker while his mother's family were London butchers. He never married although he had numerous mistresses - who were never included in his public life - and fathered two children.

Behaviour He preferred anonymity and lived under an assumed name at times. He had a cockney accent and spoke the language of the streets. He spent much time living in taverns, where he was well known for his truculence and his stinginess with money. Turner could be coarse and rude, manipulative, ill-mannered, and inarticulate but he could also be generous and humane.

Tate Britain: Turner Online | Biography: Turner's professional training and career
Tate Britain: Turner Online | Biography: Turner's Travels - Turner travelled frequently and far afield in search of material. By the time he was in his early twenties, he had established a pattern of working and travelling that was to continue throughout most of his working life: touring, sketching and collecting information in the summer, and then returning home to work up finished pictures during the winter.
Tate Britain: Turner Online | Biography: Turner's patrons - Despite Turner's working class background, he seems to have attracted a series of wealthy, aristocratic patrons, several of whom treated him as a friend and welcomed him into their homes.
Tate Britain: Turner Online | Biography: Turner's personal life
Tate Britain: Turner Online | Biography: Turner's reputation
Tate Britain: Turner Online | Timeline: A timeline for Turner
The Turner Museum (online fan site) - History of Turner: Biographical Sketch
Multiple Genius Joseph Mallord William Turner

BOOKS: Biographies of Turner

Books on Amazon

Overviews of Turner

These are sites which provide an in-depth perspective on Turner

handprint : joseph mallord william turner: Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) is considered England's greatest painter.
Joseph Mallord William Turner - Biography, life and works: JMW Turner Biography - The life and works of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), a complete analysis of the most famous works by the greatest British painter of all time
The Victorian Web: J. M. W. Turner: An Overview: Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851): An Overview
* Turner and the sister arts
* Turner's Lectures on the Arts
* Ruskin on Turner's Isolation
* Ruskin on Turner's Color
* Ruskin on Turner's "palpitating, perpetual change"
* Turner, Wordsworth, and the Sublime
* Turner and the Picturesque
* Turner and Pathetic Fallacy
* Ruskin's allegorical interpretations of Turner
Plus discussion of individual paintings

THE TURNER COLLECTION AT TATE BRITAIN

Turner left all his work to the nation (the Tuner bequest) on condition that is was all housed in one museum and not split up.

Turner at the Tate

The Tate Gallery in London is the home of the Turner Bequest.

On his death in 1851, Turner left the contents of his studio to the nation. The Bequest includes finished oil paintings and watercolours. In addition there are a further c.37,000 drawings and watercolours of studies ranging from scraps to developed studies. It captures all the work associated with the techniques and working practices of one man and provides a unique insight into the working methods of a great artist.

The Turner Bequest has some very specific conditions - for example, it has to be kept together and cannot be split.

Tate Britain: Turner Online: Turner Online - the website dedicated to Turner at the Tate Gallery - home of the Turner Bequest
Tate Britain: Turner Online | Turner's Gallery: You can experience what it might have been like to visit Turner's Gallery, by entering its 3D recreation. (Please be patient as this panorama may take a while to load.)
Tate Britain | Turner Prize: The Turner Prize is a result of the Turner Bequest.

Turner Collection Highlights - by decade and theme

Tate Britain houses the Turner Bequest / Turner Collection. Its website is well organised and allows access to a very great deal of the collection - if you know where to look!

Tate Collection | Collection Highlights | Turner Collection Highlights | Decade 1800-1810: Turner Collection Highlights - Decade 1800-1810
List of Works
Tate Collection | Collection Highlights | Turner Collection Highlights: Turner Collection Highlights

The Tate has the largest collection of works by J M W Turner in the world. These selections have been assembled by the Tate's Turner experts to highlight some of the key works and interest
Tate Collection | Collection Highlights | Turner Collection Highlights | Popular Themes: Sunsets/Sunrises: Turner Collection Highlights - Popular Themes: Sunsets/Sunrises
21 Works
Tate Collection | Collection Highlights | Turner Collection Highlights | Related Works: Turner Collection Highlights - Related Works
4 Works
Tate Collection | Collection Highlights | Turner Collection Highlights | Turner General Highlights: Turner Collection Highlights - Turner General Highlights
16 Works
Tate Collection | Collection Highlights | Turner Collection Highlights | Watercolours produced for engraved series: Rogers's Italy: Turner Collection Highlights - Watercolours produced for engraved series: Rogers's Italy
20 Works
Tate Collection | Turner Collection | Oil paintings: Turner Collection - Oil paintings
507 Works
Tate Britain | Collection Displays - Landscape and Nation - Turner's Britain (Room T5): Landscape and Nation - Turner's Britain (Room T5)
Turner ranged ever further on annual summer tours - to Bristol (1791), Wales, the Midlands, the north of England, and Scotland (1801). From careful pencil studies in his sketchbooks he developed watercolours and paintings for commissions and the Royal Academy exhibition each spring.
Tate Britain | Collection Displays - Turner Abroad (Room T8): Turner Abroad (Room T8)
Turner made more than twenty tours abroad, travelling to France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and as far afield as the present-day Czech Republic. Travel afforded Turner a wealth of views which he recorded in sketchbooks to recall authentic topographical details. These continental tours also stimulated his imagination, and provided the inspiration for historical and poetical subjects, as well as evocative landscape views.

BOOKS: About Turner's work

books on Amazon

Turner Sketchbooks at Tate Britain

One of the very special aspects of the Turner Collection is that it contains all Turner's sketchbooks. The nature of the sketchbooks are such that they are not easy to display. The Tate have digitised them and they are all accessible online.

This is one of the best resources for those studying how great artists use sketchbooks available on the Internet. So far as I am aware it is unequalled anywhere else - for any other artist or in any other museum

Tate Collection | Turner Collection | Sketchbooks: Turner Collection: Sketchbooks: Turner's sketchbooks have been divided into different decades and can be viewed as digital facsimile copies online. 300 sketchbooks are divided into decades. To view the sketchbooks belonging to a particular decade, click on the decade from the list below.

TURNER EXHIBITIONS AT TATE BRITAIN

Turner Exhibitions at Tate Britain

Tate Britain has regular exhibitions which focus on or include Turner's work.

Tate Britain Collection: Introducing Turner: This biographical introduction examines Turner's reputation among artists and critics, and how this was conveyed in pictures and accounts made both during his lifetime and posthumously.
Tate Britain Collection: Hockney on Turner: David Hockney, presents his own selection of Turner's unique colour studies or 'beginnings' and also provides commentary on the artist's techniques.
Tate Britain Collection Turner at Home and Abroad: The end in 1815 of the long wars between Britain and France meant that for the first time in a generation, artists could travel freely on the continent. Turner was the most prolific artistic traveller of the time, seeking inspiration in the imposing landscapes along the Rhine in Germany (1817), and among the antiquities of Rome and the vivid sights of Venice (1819). During the 1820s Turner produced a succession of watercolour series representing the British landscape, drawing attention to the maritime economy, agriculture and historic monuments.
Tate Britain Collection: Turner - the Annual Tourist: The inspiration and source material for much of this work came from an annual sketching tour, a habit Turner had established early in his career. He had always been an intrepid traveller and his advancing years did nothing to limit his energies. Between 1830 and 1839 he travelled to the Midlands, Scotland, France, Switzerland and the Alps, Belgium, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Denmark and Luxembourg.
Tate Britain Collection: Turner - Master and Magician - the late work: In 1840 Turner was sixty-%uFB01ve. Rather than slowing down, his last decade proved to be a fertile period of renewed experimentation, during which he created countless watercolours that seem, even today, effortless and daring. For the most part, he was painting purely for himself: playing expressively with colour; or developing an image only as far as it interested him.
Tate Britain Collection : Turner - Nature and the Ideal: Mainland Europe was inaccessible until Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, so England's landscape, particularly the coast and its inhabitants, took on a heightened signi%uFB01cance for Turner as he constantly travelled and sketched to satisfy the demand for his paintings, watercolours and prints.
Tate Collection | JMW Turner: The Three Rigis 22 January - 25 March 2007: Tate brings together for the first time ever three of JMW Turner's very greatest watercolour paintings: The Blue Rigi, The Dark Rigi and The Red Rigi. Turner's groundbreaking use of watercolour, which spanned his career, culminated in the early 1840s with a series of transcendent views of Swiss lakes and mountains. Chief among these are the three views of Mount Rigi as seen from Lake Lucerne. Each shows the mountain at a different time of day and is characterised by a defining colour or tone: dark, blue or red.
Tate Collection | Norham Castle, Sunrise: From Incomprehension to Icon 13 November 2006 - 18 February 2007: Turner's painting, Norham Castle, Sunrise, and a group of twenty-one previously unknown, and essentially 'unfinished', canvases were the focal point of a new Turner room inaugurated at the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) in February 1906.

These pictures had entered to the national collection in 1856, but remained uncatalogued. This was chiefly due to a lack of adequate hanging space for the many oil paintings in the collection. But a bigger issue was the concern that the images would not be properly understood by the public. Gallery officials themselves had serious reservations, considering them only 'rude beginnings' or even 'mere botches'.
Tate Collection | Drawing from Turner 6 November 2006 - 20 May 2007: The Drawing from Turner project sought to revitalise the tradition of copying from another artist's work in order to gain insight and understanding. The fifty-eight artists participating in the Drawing from Turner project were able to choose from a representative group of thirty-five drawings chosen from amongst the thousands available in the Bequest.
Tate Britain | Turner Whistler Monet 10 February - 15 May 2005: JMW Turner, James McNeill Whistler and Claude Monet each changed the course of landscape painting. Whistler and Monet were friends and both initially acknowledged the profound influence of Turner, adopting and working their own variations on themes developed by their artistic predecessor. Turners atmospheric effects gave rise to Whistlers Thames Nocturnes, and both Turner and Whistler informed Monets revolutionary paintings that went on to inspire the term Impressionism.

This exceptional exhibition focuses on views of the River Thames, the Seine and the city and lagoon of Venice a rare opportunity to see works which were highly controversial in their own day but are now seen as some of the most poetic and evocative images ever produced.
Tate Britain | Turner and Venice 9 October 2003 - 11 January 2004: This show brought together for the very first time Turner's oil paintings, watercolours, prints and sketchbooks of work relating to Venice. For those of who saw it was an unforgettable experience
Tate Collection | Teachers pack (pdf file) for the Turner in venice Exhibition: This provides a lot mor detail about Turner and his travels to Venice and places it within the context of why people travel to paint and the historical context.
Tate International | Turner: Reflections of Sea and Light: The sea was the subject that, more than any other, preoccupied Turner throughout his career. He recorded all its various moods, whether tranquil or stormy.
This exhibition was shown in the USA, Spain and Portugal
Tate Collection |Vanishing Point: The Perspective Drawings of JMW Turner (Tate Britain) 24 May - 7 November 2004: For thirty years (1807-1837) Turner was Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy and the drawings he created to illustrate his lectures look quite unlike other works by him. Primarily rendered in bold strokes of red and black watercolour, with text often scrawled above or below the diagram, some of the pieces are more reminiscent of early twentieth century Constructivist works than Turner watercolours. Turner gave six lectures annually on the principles of linear and aerial perspective and sought to teach his students both the theory and practice of the discipline. He produced about 180 perspective drawings in all, now part of the Turner Bequest housed at Tate Britain.
Tate St Ives | Light into Colour - Turner in the South West 28 January - 7 May 2006: Turner toured Devon and Cornwall in 1811, returning to Devon in 1813 and 1814. The work produced in Cornwall and West Devon occurred at an important stage in Turner's development.
The exhibition includes examples of Turner's work in all media (oil paintings, oil sketches, watercolours, pencil sketches and notebooks), providing spectators with a rounded exposure to his different working methods. In reuniting sketches with finished work it will be possible to enter into Turner's creative development of observed reality as it becomes a suitable subject for a finished picture.
Tate Collection | Collection Highlights | Turner Collection Highlights: Tate - Turner Collection Highlights: The Tate has the largest collection of works by J M W Turner in the world. These selections have been assembled by the Tate's Turner experts to highlight some of the key works and interest
Tate Britain - Hockney of Turner Watercolours: The exhibition tracks Turner's watercolour work through time. From architecture to topography, ideal and historic landscape to nature studies, and finished works to private sketches, the selection reveals Turner's extraordinary range as a watercolourist. At the same time, it shows the development of the virtuoso techniques that enabled him first to paint watercolours that could compete with oil paintings, and later to transform all aspects of his art by their example.
Tate Britain - Colour and Line Turner Experiments: Colour and Line: Turner's experiments is a two-room display featuring works on paper by Turner, with a variety of experiments and interactive displays exploring his working methods and techniques. Learn more about printmaking and see the extraordinary care Turner took to produce the finest prints of his time. See the changes in Turner's watercolour palette as he travelled across Europe, responding to different light effects, and using newly-developed colours and paints.
Tate Britain - Turner and the Masters 23 September - 31 January 2009: Rivalry, obsession, jealousy... the story of Turner's battle to outdo all other artists. This unforgettable show places beautiful masterpieces by Canaletto, Rubens, Rembrandt and Titian next to some of JMW Turner's most dramatic paintings. It shines light on a lesser-known side of the British Romantic painter: his obsession to prove he was just as good, if not better, than the old masters who he so admired.
Tate Britain | Exhibitions | Watercolour: The story of Watercolour
Tate Britain 16 February - 21 August 2011
Includes work by Turner

BOOKS: Associated with Turner exhibitions

TURNER EXHIBITIONS ELSEWHERE

The queue for the Turner Whistler Monet Exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, October 2004

Exhibitions of work by J M W Turner - outside the Tate

Turner's work is incredibly popular and exhibitions outside the UK often include his work and every so often there is an exhibition which wholly or mainly focuses on his work. This means that some of his more popular artwork is occasionally "on tour"

National Gallery of Art, Washington: J. M. W. Turner Exhibition (2007): Over the last seven years, The Tate Gallery in London has worked with three US galleries to realise the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of the works of JMW Turner ever staged in North America.

This will also be seen at
- the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (1 October 2007 - 6 January 2008),
- the Dallas Museum of Art (10 February - 18 May 2008),
- and, finally, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (24 June - 21 September 2008).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Special Exhibitions: J. M. W. Turner (2008): The first retrospective of the work of J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) presented in the United States in more than forty years, this international exhibition highlights approximately 140 paintings and watercolors-more than half of them from Tate Britain's Turner Bequest-along with works from other collections in Europe and North America. The artist's extensive iconographic range is represented, from seascapes and topographical views to historical subjects and scenes from his imagination.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Special Exhibitions: J. M. W. Turner: More About the Exhibition
This exhibition features many of the remarkable canvases that Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy in London-works that established his reputation-from his first exhibited oil, Fishermen at Sea (1796, Tate), to the luminous The Burning of the House of Lords and Commons (1835, Philadelphia Museum of Art). The iconic Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (1812, Tate) is on view in the United States for the first time during this exhibition tour. Also included are the artist's "color beginnings," or watercolor studies for subsequently developed images, along with his finished watercolors. The exhibition is organized both thematically and chronologically, beginning with his earliest Sublime and historical landscapes and culminating with his late seascapes and light-filled canvases.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Special Exhibitions: J. M. W. Turner: Exhibition Images
Liverpool museums - Turner's Journeys of the Imagination: Turner's Journeys of the Imagination
Walker Art Gallery
24 May - 4 August 2002

Turner's Journeys of the Imagination features Merseyside's most important works by the renowned landscape painter Joseph Mallord Willliam Turner (1775-1851). The exhibition celebrates the birth of domestic tourism and its influence on his art.
National Galleries of Scotland - Turner in January | The Vaughan Bequest: Welcome the New Year with a wonderful Scottish tradition: the annual display of Turner watercolours.

These works, bequeathed by Henry Vaughan, span Turner's long career, from his early topographical wash drawings to the atmospheric sketches of continental Europe from the 1830s and '40s. Vaughan stipulated in his bequest that these delicate watercolours should only be shown in January when natural daylight is at its weakest, so they will not fade. This limited exposure has resulted in the works retaining their natural brilliance and luminous colours.

National Galleries of Scotland is comprised of the National Gallery of Scotland, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the Dean Gallery and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
IHT: Parallel processions, but the case for 'influence' is not made : Turner, Whistler and Monet - International Herald Tribune: Parallel processions, but the case for 'influence' is not made : Turner, Whistler and Monet
By Souren Melikian
Published: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2004

PARIS: What is it that makes some artists appear to move in the same direction while creating works evidently far apart? The question will haunt many visitors as they walk through the marvelous "Turner, Whistler, Monet" show at the Grand Palais here until Jan. 17, before moving on to London and reopening at the Tate on Feb. 10.
The Art History Blog - In the Vortex of Turner: A few weeks ago, I had the great fortune of being able to attend not one, but two members-only events at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City%u2026 and now I'll bring them to you! These events, an opening and a Saturday morning lecture, were in conjunction with the Met's newest exhibition, titled simply J. M. W. Turner.
Two Coats of Paint: J.M.W. Turner's poetic visualization of British history: Maintained by Sharon L. Butler, Two Coats of Paint is a digest of reviews, commentary, and background information about painting and related subjects.
Turner has arrived in New York. In The New Yorker, back in September, when the exhibition was opening at the National Gallery, Simon Schama wrote an engaging article about Turner's critical reception during his own time.
International Herald Tribune - J. M. W. Turner: A storm-tossed visionary of light - International Herald Tribune: J. M. W. Turner: A storm-tossed visionary of light
By Roberta Smith Published: July 4, 2008

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's "J. M. W. Turner" is a beast of a show. With nearly 150 works in oil and watercolor spanning more than half a century, it will either win you over or wear you out. Or it will alternate, gallery by gallery, or wall by wall, as the art swings between overblown and moving, inspired and mechanical.
Bloomberg: Bloated Turner Show Arrives at Met Museum in Blaze of Colors

Review by Linda Yablonsky
The New Yorker - The Talk of the Town: Turner's Emissary: The New Yorker: Turner's Emissary
by Calvin Tomkins and Geoffrey T. Hellman April 2, 1966
GALERIES NATIONALES DU GRAND PALAIS Turner et ses Peintres: Exposition "Turner et ses peintres" : Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, à Paris du 24 Fevrier 2010 au 24 mai 2010

This is Turner and the Masters - at the Grand Palais in Paris

International Herald Tribune commented: Turner and ''his'' painters. Whether they were painters of the past (Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Rembrandt, Canaletto) he admired, or contemporaries (David Wilkie, Bonington) he emulated, J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) copied their themes, while developing his own technique - and popularity. The early paintings are mostly dark but varied: watercolor landscapes, genre scenes, fantasy landscapes, historical scenes and small-size figures. Juxtaposed with the other painters' works, they prove that Turner did not always outdo his models. As years went by and as he traveled through the Continent, Turner's brushwork became freer, his scenes more vaporous, his skies more luminous. The exhibition ends with radiant paintings in Turner's well-known palette of yellows, white and vermilion. The painter had at last freed himself from artistic confrontation and developed his own pictorial idiom. Left, ''Snow storm, Steamboat off a Harbor's Mouth, 1842,'' an impressionistic, tormented vision of a seascape, shows Turner at his best. The exhibition will travel to Madrid. (Tate Britain, London)

JMW Turner - in Art Galleries and Museums

Items in permanent collections

Below you can find information about which museums and art galleries have work by Turner in their permanent collections

Tate Collection | Turner Collection | Turner Worldwide: Turner Worldwide brings together online over 2,000 works by Turner held in public and private collections around the world. The project provides online access to these works alongside Tate's own Turner holdings, creating a comprehensive online catalogue and rich central resource of information about Turner's works outside Tate.

Turner Worldwide is an ongoing project of the Tate. It includes records for oil paintings, watercolours and drawings and aims to provide colour images for as many as possible through partnerships with other institutions and private collectors.
Tate Collection | Turner Collection | Turner Worldwide | Works held in public institutions: Turner Worldwide - works in public institutions
Works by Joseph Mallord William Turner held in public institutions in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Soth Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States
National Gallery, London - TURNER, Joseph Mallord William: Short bio and links to paintings in the National Gallery Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington - J. M. W. Turner: Click on an image in the the gallery for a larger view.
National Gallery of Art-J.M.W. Turner: NGA-J.M.W. Turner Exhibition
This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery. Please follow the links on this site for related online resources
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Works by Joseph Mallord William Turner: Works of Art in the Permanent Collection
Turner in the National Galleries of Scotland - Permanent Collection: Works by Joseph Willim Mallord Turner
National Galleries of Scotland is comprised of the National Gallery of Scotland, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the Dean Gallery and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge - Ruskin's Turners: In 1861, the Museum's collection of watercolours and drawings was transformed by the gift of twenty-five watercolours by J.M.W.Turner from the writer and critic John Ruskin, Turner's most fervent champion and critic.
National Gallery of Art, Washintgon - work by Joseph Mallord William Turner: Artist Joseph Mallord William Turner British, 1775 - 1851

TURNER ONLINE - OTHER RESOURCES

Turner - websites and online galleries

All these sites provide access to images by Turner. These are supplemented by narrative about Turner and/or the paintings and/or his technique.

The Turner Museum - online fan site: Turner JMW - Father of the Impressionists
WebMuseum: Turner, Joseph Mallord William: Turner, John Mallord William (1775-1851). One of the finest landscape artists was J.M.W. Turner, whose work was exhibited when he was still a teenager. His entire life was devoted to his art. Unlike many artists of his era, he was successful throughout his career.
ARC :: Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) :: Page 1 of 14: Joseph Mallord William Turner (b.1775-d.1851). Art-works featured on this page include: The Brunig Pass, from Meringen,Heidelberg,Brunnen, from the Lake of Lucerne,Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway,Approach to Venice,Peace - Burial at Sea,Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth
The Artchive - Joseph Mallord William Turner: Joseph Mallord William Turner images and biography
Artcyclopedia | Joseph Mallord William Turner Online: Joseph Mallord William Turner [English Romantic Painter, 1775-1851]

This site provides a comprehensive guide to pictures of works by Joseph Mallord William Turner in art museum sites and image archives worldwide - plus links to same.
William Turner - Olga's Gallery: Olga's gallery is one of the largest online painting museums. New exhibits daily. Biographies and main works of many famous artists. Excellent quality of reproductions. Historical comments.
J. M. W. Turner - Wikimedia Commons: J. M. W. Turner From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) was a British Romantic painter.
Images of paintings in various categories
DCMS | GAC JMW Turner in the Government Art Collection: JMW Turner in the Government Art Collection

JMW Turner - Turner and the Romance of Britain

videos by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition "J. M. W. Turner", these talks highlight the work of J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) and examine aspects of the artists seascapes, topographical views, historical subjects, and scenes from his imagination.

Simon Schama, Professor, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University

J. M. W. Turner - Turner and the Romance of Britain - Part 1 of 8: by metmuseum | video info

24 ratings | 9,436 views

curated content from YouTube

VIDEOS: Turner on YouTube

Joseph Mallord William Turner: by Alcyna | video info

99 ratings | 31,262 views

curated content from YouTube

JMW TURNER - ART MEDIA & TECHNIQUES

Turner's Oil Painting - Materials and Techniques

Winsor & Newton - Palettes of the Masters - JMW Turner: At Winsor & Newton, we are often asked about the colour palettes used by the old masters. The colours used by JMW Turner are particularly interesting, spanning an era of great discovery and invention in the field of pigments.

Watercolour techniques

handprint : joseph mallord william turner: Turner's watercolour techniques

VIEWS ABOUT TURNER

Ruskin on Turner

He (Turner) is the epitome of all art, the concentration of all power; there is nothing that ever artist was celebrated for, that he cannot do better than the most celebrated. He seems to have seen everything, remembered everything, spiritualised everything in the visible world. There is nothing that he has not done, nothing that he dares not do; when he dies, there will be more of nature and her mysteries forgotten in one sob, than will be learnt again by the eyes of a generation.'

John Ruskin, 1840

Articles and reviews about Turner and his work

Turner - the artist and his work - is the topic of frequent articles in the national press and specialist journals

The Turner surprise by A A Gill - Times Online: The Turner surprise.
The famously outspoken David Hockney is at it again - he loves smoking, hates Gordon Brown and says that the government is waging a war on our freedom. Between puffs, he explains why he is equally passionate about J M W Turner, Britain's greatest artist
Why Turner's too bright for The New Yorker | Art & architecture | guardian.co.uk: Jonathan Jones says
New York might not understand him, but the Met's new Turner exhibition only highlights the artist's brilliance
J. M. W. Turner - ARTINFO.com: September 18, 2008
ARTIST DOSSIER
J. M. W. Turner By Colin Gleadell Published: September 1, 2008
Roz Wound Up: Productivity: J. M. W. Turner: I've been reading about Turner (British painter born in 1775, loose watercolors, man Ruskin turned into a household word, that Turner, Joseph Mallord William Turner, who died in 1851). Seems he did 1,600 watercolors, almost 600 oil paintings, and over 19,000 colour studies, sketches and unfinished watercolours (let's stick with the British spelling). If you do the math (and I didn't, I had to hire out for that) it means that he was doing roughly 3 colour studies (including sketches and unfinished watercolours) a day! It also means that each week he was completing a watercolour (and most of these are pretty large). On top of this he was completing one oil painting a month (these were also often very, very large, measurable in square feet).
Dorothy Koppelman, Aesthetic Realism Consultant, on Joseph Mallord William Turner: Light and Dark, Hiding and Showing in
Joseph Mallord William Turner
By Dorothy Koppelman
Guardian - JMW Turner: a Master and the myths (21.09.09): As Tate Britain prepares to launch its most ambitious Turner exhibition to date, Maev Kennedy takes a look at the man who enraged, enthralled and bewildered his contemporaries
Daily Telegraph - JMW Turner: the man behind the masterpieces (21.09.09): Tate Britain launches a major new retrospective of JMW Turner and Martin Gayford comments on the man behind the art
J. M. W. Turner: the making of a Young Master at Tate Britain - Times Online: Just as Wagner's music was once said to be better than it sounded, some have long suspected that Turner's paintings were even better
BBC - Today - Painting the competitive streak: Philippa Simpson explains the fierce rivalry between artists JMW Turner and John Constable
Light and Dark, Hiding and Showing in Joseph Mallord William Turner by Dorothy Koppelman,: The "reality question of the luminous and hidden" is crucial in the work and life of Joseph Mallord William Turner the great English painter who lived from 1775 to 1851. Turner had a passion for light and the light he loved was turbulent,churning, always in motion. He studied light and painted it with intensity in relation to floods, storms, fog, steam, snow, and to what critics have described as "cataclysmic, or elemental events."
BBC News - Turner's Rome view painting sells for record £29.7m: An 1839 Turner masterpiece of a view of Rome has sold for £29.7m in London, breaking the artist's auction record. Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino sold in five minutes with six bidders battling for the work which has only come up for sale once before, Sotheby's said. Painted in 1839, Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino shows Turner at his "absolute best" and was bought by a London dealer on behalf of The J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

The previous record was the £20.5m paid in 2006 for Venice painting Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio.

Famous works by J.M.W.Turner

Buy books from Museum Shops

National Galleries of Scotland - J.M.W. Turner The Vaughan Bequest by Christopher Baker: 120pp | Paperback | 60 colour illustrations £9.95

This new, richly illustrated book, provides an authoritative commentary on the watercolours, taking account of recent research, and addressing questions of technique and function, as well as considering some of the numerous contacts Turner had with other artists, collectors and dealers.
Hockney on Turner Watercolours at Tate Online Shop: 48pp, 165 x 230mm, 28 colour illustrations
Published by Tate Media
Paperback ISBN 978 1 85437 783 8

Making A Mark - posts about Turner

MAKING A MARK: Tate Britain: Drawing from Turner: One of the current exhibitions at the Tate Britain challenges the notion that copying is no way to learn. It comprises a small sample of drawings from the Turner Bequest which is housed at Tate Britain together with drawings created as a result of copying those made by Turner by a number of professional artists and art students from the University of the Arts in London, as part of a collaboration with the Tate.
Making a Mark: Turner Watercolours with Hockney and Shirley: There are two excellent new Turner exhibitions at Tate Britain - and part of one of them was curated by David Hockney.
- The BP Summer Exhibition: Hockney on Turner Watercolours (11 June 2007 - 3 February 2008). The exhibition is simply stunning and well worth seeing in person if at all possible.
- The second exhibition also focuses on the artistic process and is an interactive display in the Clore Gallery called Colour and Line: Turner's Experiments An (2 May 2007 - 30 April 2012. You've got lots of time to see this one!)
MAKING A MARK: Exhibition review: Turner and the Masters at Tate Britain: Turner and the Masters is an exhibition about JMW Turner's engagement with past and present masters of the art of painting.
If you know your artists, then this is one of those exhibitions where you keep thinking how amazing it is to see quite so many paintings from recognised Masters in one room. Artists included in the exhibition are: Claude Lorrain, Poussin, Titian, Rembrandt, Canaletto, Watteau, Ruisdel, van der Velde, Constable and Girtin. Works are displayed well and in some cases works are reunited here for the first time in hundreds of years and others have never been seen together before in this light.

Making A Mark

Artist and writer Katherine Tyrrell draws and writes about art for artists and art lovers

Topics include: drawing, painting, art blogs, visual artists, art competitions, art exhibitions, art history; art techniques and tips; art business and marketing; the art economy and making a mark with pastels, coloured pencils and pen & ink

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seosmm Jan 8, 2012 @ 6:30 am | delete

Very nice lens!

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Heather426 Sep 17, 2011 @ 8:01 pm | delete

Love Turner, love all the resources you have here.

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fenellashorty May 23, 2010 @ 4:51 pm | delete

Wonderful lens. I love Turners work

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Leila Rosen Aug 3, 2009 @ 12:05 pm | delete

I want everyone who loves the work of Turner to know of a powerful paper by artist and Aesthetic Realism consultant Dorothy Koppelman, titled "Light and Dark, Hiding and Showing in Joseph Mallord William Turner." Mrs. Koppelman, the founding director of the Terrain Gallery in New York City, writes with critical comprehension and aesthetic exactitude about Turner's work and also his life. Here is the link to this paper:
http://www.terraingallery.org/J-M-W-Turner/turner-light.htm.

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Douglass Montrose-Graem Dec 31, 2008 @ 9:26 pm | delete

What a treasure chest of Turner data! You are invited to visit www.turnermuseum.org [founded in 1973] and wallow in beautiful J.M.W. Turners. We are a wee bit more than a "fan site". Also believe we could learn a lot about your unique resources and resourcefulness and about blogging we are about to start. When i can figure out how to send YOU an email, I'll be happy to send you our exhibition schedule for 2009-2013, then let me have your reaction. Please visit my personal website: spirit007genius.com to explore the range of collaborations YOU believe we could develop.
Wishing you a marvelous 2009. The best is yet to come!

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J.M.W. Turner - Resources for Art Lovers

Learn about one of Britain's greatest artists - JMW Turner (1775 - 1851)